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Aim: This paper discusses four main strategies for addressing nursing shortages that have been persistent, widespread and growing. Fallout from the COVID‐19 pandemic might offer valuable impetus to address this tenacious challenge. Background: Nursing shortages are common, widespread and have been persistent for most of a century. Many of the reasons behind these shortages are well known and are themselves enduring, as are the types of strategies put forward for addressing them. These strategies can generally be classified into four main categories: enhancing retention, improving recruitment, encouraging return to practice and drawing on international human resources. The COVID‐19 pandemic is the latest major threat to ensuring a sufficiently sized and skilled nursing workforce. Many nurses have succumbed to burnout as well the plethora of factors that predated the pandemic and have a negative impact on nurse wellbeing, turnover and intention to leave. Sources of evidence: This discussion paper draws on international sources of evidence. Discussion/conclusion: This paper highlights how many of the factors behind and strategies for addressing nursing shortages at the local, national and global levels are widely studied and known. A sustained combination of strategies that focus both within and beyond health and nursing, including on the broader social context, is necessary. While COVID‐19 has been extremely damaging, it might present an opportunity to make sustainable, effective reforms to address nursing shortages. Implications for policy: Knowledge users must recognise that a combination of approaches across the gamut of policies that influence nursing workforces is necessary to address nursing shortages. Attention must also focus on factors beyond nursing and healthcare if shortages are to be remedied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Identify and map international evidence regarding innovations led by or involving advanced practice nurses in response to COVID‐19. Background: COVID‐19 necessitated unprecedented innovation in the organization and delivery of healthcare. Although advanced practice nurses have played a pivotal role during the pandemic, evidence of their contributions to innovations has not been synthesized. Evidence is needed to inform policies, practices, and research about the optimal use of advanced practice nurses. Methods: A scoping review was conducted and reported using the PRISMA‐ScR checklist. Electronic databases were searched for peer‐reviewed articles published between January 2020 and December 2021. Papers were included that focused on innovations emerging in response to COVID‐19 and involved advanced practice nurses. Results: Fifty‐one articles were included. Four themes were identified including telehealth, supporting and transforming care, multifaceted approaches, and provider education. Half of the articles used brief and mostly noncomparative approaches to evaluate innovations. Conclusion: This is the first synthesis of international evidence examining the contributions of advanced practice nurses during the pandemic. Advanced practice nurses provided leadership for the innovation needed to rapidly respond to healthcare needs resulting from COVID‐19. Innovations challenged legislative restrictions on practice, enabled implementation of telehealth and new models of care, and promoted evidence‐informed and patient‐centered care. Implications for practice: Advanced practice nurses led, designed, implemented, and evaluated innovations in response to COVID‐19. They facilitated the use of telehealth, supported or transformed models of care, and enabled health providers through education, mentorship, and mental health support. Implication for policy: Advanced practice nurses are a critical resource for innovation and health system improvement. Permanent removal of legislative and regulatory barriers to their full scope of practice is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of advanced practice nursing has evolved globally over the past decades and has become an important component in the contemporary healthcare system. The term 'advanced practice nurse' is used to refer to nurses practising at a higher level than traditional nurses and is defined as a registered nurse who has acquired the expert knowledge base, complex decision‐making skills and clinical competencies for expanded practice. In 2003, Singapore embarked on the development of advanced practice nurses as an initiative to improve the nursing professional image, retain excellent clinical nurses and fill the gaps in the provision of healthcare services for the ageing population. This paper documents Singapore's journey of advanced practice nursing development and shares our unique learning experience in the aspects of education, certification, registration and scope of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To provide a perspective on the visibility of nursing gained during the COVID‐19 pandemic and propose strategic options for nurses to consolidate their expanded roles and influence. Background: The COVID‐19 pandemic has exposed long‐standing inequities across the world. Factors preserving discrimination weakened during the emergency are now being re‐established by neo‐liberalist influences that dismiss the true scale of the disaster and shape the narrative in ways that increase public risk and render nurses invisible. Sources of Evidence: All evidence drawn from publicly available sources is presented through the lens of the authors' nursing, management, education, policy and research experience. Discussion: Nurse advocacy will be needed during future decades of pandemic control and recovery and be in a position to deliver appropriate care and services. Conclusion: For nurses at all levels to remain visible, important, valued and respected, they need to be informed, engaged and willing to make a stand to preserve the hard‐won reputational gains of the last 30 months of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Implications for Nursing Practice: Nurse advocacy and engagement are needed to maintain public awareness of the ongoing risks and safety options associated with the pandemic. Implications for Health and Social Policy: Nurses and other health practitioners need to reveal the true level of devastation that continues to occur and guide the focus of political and administrative strategies in response to COVID‐19 impacts on services and public health orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To emphasize that nurses need to be fully protected to carry out their vital role, particularly during pandemics, yet the lack of a standardized and systematic collection of high‐quality disaggregated data on nurses health inhibits our ability to assess this within and across countries. Background: Nurses are the largest workforce group in the health sector, yet only 59 countries worldwide report on nurse COVID‐19 infections and related deaths, and the standardized, systematic collection of disaggregated health data is not yet in place. Sources of evidence: Medline, International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the experiences of the authors. Discussion: Inconsistent recording and definitions of nurses, precarious and informal employment conditions, limited transparent and reliable data, lack of mass testing and long‐standing structural issues and biases have affected nursing for too long. Conclusions: These issues are reflected in the limited capacity of many national public health information systems to collect, monitor and report on the health of the largest group of health workers. Political will, accountability and public data transparency at different levels are essential to adequately protect nurses at work. Implications for nursing practice, and nursing and health policy: Building on current momentum in the nursing field, immediate political action is required to strengthen existing nursing and midwifery policies, standards and regulatory capacity, as well as existing public health services and information and surveillance systems. The generation of up‐to‐date, context‐specific knowledge is needed to inform and monitor political decisions related to the protection of nurses, and the improvement of their employment conditions, as well as to strengthen accountability for these areas at various levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To gather information from nurses and allied health professionals in the French context of the emergence of research in the field so as to inform the development of a new tool: The research in nursing and allied health sciences' Ideas Generator (GénI) capable of sustaining the identification of research ideas from professionals in the field. Background: In many countries, research in nursing and allied health sciences remains underdeveloped. Introduction: Before developing the Ideas Generator tool, it was essential to explore professionals' basis of reference in providing care, then investigate (1) their representation of research in this field of science and (2) their perception of needs for and obstacles to starting a research process. Methods: The qualitative research design used focus groups. The study population included 24 participants naive to research in four hospitals in eastern France (13 nurses and 11 allied health professionals). Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The study was reported in compliance with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research criteria. Findings: Professionals used tacit knowledge and their experiences to address care, but the culture of scientific evidence was clearly missing (lack of knowledge of the origin of care guidelines, few bibliographic skills). Participation in a research process could hardly be envisaged without a supervised collaboration with a physician. Research was perceived not to be part of professionals' culture. They self‐censured for lack of methodological competencies. Discussion: Findings underlined some leverage, obstacles, and need to consider to generate a stimulation in the field, especially in countries where such research is still in its infancy. Implication for nursing, health, and education policy: Strengthening the field of nursing and allied health research is essential to extend the skills of nurses and allied health workers and to improve the quality of patient care by taking into account results from the literature. The Ideas Generator tool will be implemented to sustain learning the skills of research through education and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although several programs have been initiated to increase the uptake of health services amongst youth living with human immunodeficiency virus in the world, disparities in access to these care services still exist. Aim: This study aimed to explore the experiences of young people as they attend the human immunodeficiency virus clinic and to identify factors affecting their uptake of health services in southern Malawi. Methods: A focused ethnography was conducted to collect data from 20 youths living with human immunodeficiency virus and aged between 15 and 24 years through one‐on‐one in‐depth interviews and casual observations. The interviews data were analysed thematically following transcriptions. Findings: Two themes emerged to describe the factors that facilitated or hindered the uptake of HIV‐health services. The first theme: Facilitators to the accessibility and utilization of HIV services consisted subthemes of Health personnel‐related factors and Innovative healthcare delivery approach. The second theme: Barriers to utilization and accessibility of HIV service comprised of the following subthemes: Ignoranceof health services available, Clinic‐related factors and Consumer‐related factors. Conclusion: Efforts to support health services that are youth‐friendly and easily accessible are needed to increase uptake, decrease mortality, prevent disability and promote the wellbeing of youth living with human immunodeficiency virus. Implications for nursing practice and policy: Approaches used with this population should be youth‐centred and multifaceted, recognizing both the psychosocial challenges and the vulnerability that many youths in Malawi experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]