Initiatives to support nursing workforce sustainability: Rapid umbrella review extraction data

This umbrella review aimed to identify structures that healthcare systems have put in place to stabilize, support, and provide for the sustained enhancement of the nursing workforce, as well as highlight outstanding knowledge gaps.

Following screening, we selected 69 studies for inclusion, the majority of which investigated interventions classified as implementation strategies (n=60) or delivery arrangements (n=8) under EPOC taxonomy. We identified heterogeneity in terms of the types of structures identified across reviews and the methods used for their evaluation.

The findings of this umbrella review suggest that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for supporting the nursing workforce; rather, a multi-level, multi-pronged approach may be more appropriate to collectively have the most impactful outcomes. Limitations of this review include the phenomenon of interest (structures) being difficult to define and the inability to capture recently published primary sources. Future studies should incorporate rigorous implementation and evaluation plans, focusing on the long-term impacts of such strategies, and prioritize the dissemination of learnings.