Nurse Staffing Literature Review

This is the fourth iteration of the RPNAO’s Nurse Staffing Literature Review. The aim of these reviews is to provide the RPNAO with a summary of the latest academic and professional research literature available related to the healthcare role of RPNs. To this end, the topics of education, staffing, work environment, nurse categorization and models of nursing care have been the primary focus of the various reviews. The latest reports also examined the role of ENs in different countries of the British Commonwealth because of the close alignment of ENs with RPNs. Although entry-level education has tended to concentrate on RNs, the value of current curricula for all categories of nurses is being debated in the literature. In the past, staffing issues usually only concerned RNs, but some of the studies collected this year were expanded to include LPNs/RPNs. Job satisfaction, working conditions and organizational culture remained central issues when discussing the work environment settings in which nurses work. For a number of countries, the national regulatory systems used to categorize nurses, especially LPNs and RNs, received attention in several articles. While models of nursing care typically centre on professional practices, one article found during the search discussed the improvements that can occur through changes to physical layouts when delivering nursing services. SEN specific research in the U.K. was not found but several articles highlighted the increasingly important place of ENs in the Australian healthcare system. The RPNAO Synergy Report underlined the contributions of RPNs to the nursing profession even though some ambiguity arose regarding scope of practice. The report’s results matched some of the literature review themes. The limitations inherent in the studies of the literature review were discussed.

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