Maintaining a robust nursing workforce is essential to meeting the needs of diverse patient populations and advancing global health. As the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, nurses play a critical role in providing life-saving and life-sustaining care across settings. The worldwide nursing shortage of the last decade underscored the importance of preparing adequate numbers of professional nurses and the dangers that result when too few nurses are available to provide care. Recent investigations led by Drs. Jack Needleman and Mary Blegen add to the growing body of research that correlates insufficient nurse staffing and expanding workloads with higher patient.
