Nurses play a huge role in keeping Americans healthy, but for nursing to be able meet the country’s growing health needs, we need more facts about the nursing workforce. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine future of nursing report spelled out this demand for data. In its follow-up report five years later, the call was more urgent: “The Campaign should play a role in convening, supporting, and promoting collaboration among organizations and associations,” read the 2015 report, with the goal of creating a comprehensive system to collect and organize data in numerous categories for use by researchers, policymakers, and planners.

In May 2016, the Campaign took the first step with its National Nursing and Health Care Workforce Data meeting.

This page includes resources related to that meeting of 40 experts representing nursing organizations and schools, federal  groups, and hospital systems, as well as reports and information that led up to the session.

• National Nursing Workforce Data Meeting: White Paper
• In this May 2016 webinar, experts in workforce policy, research, and analysis take a close look at studies showing progress on the Institute of Medicine recommendations.
• This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation research brief examines three aspects of how to meet the need for better data on the nursing workforce: barriers, questions, and efforts.