Nursing shortages aren’t just a challenge for U.S. health systems — they’re a challenge everywhere. Nursing leaders around the globe are coming to terms with the notion that nurse shortages will persist into the foreseeable future. Nurse recruitment pathways are highly globalized and increasingly vulnerable. With the World Health Organization predicting a global shortage of 4.5 million nurses by 2030, health systems cannot rely exclusively on recruitment to maintain workforce stability.

This global shortage means the health system focus is on improving nursing retention. But when patient demand far outpaces clinician supply, improving nursing retention feels particularly hard to manage.

With more public scrutiny than ever and a growing fear that health systems will cease to function effectively if we don’t do more to tackle these pervasive issues, policymakers around the world are stepping in to bridge the nursing supply-demand mismatch.