Project Title: Health Human Resource Planning and Modelling

Research Team:
O'Brien-Pallas, L.
Tomblin Murphy, G.

This research, comprising three separate but related projects, addresses the changing needs of nursing human resources, specifically the provision and management of human resources that are responsive to those needs.

The goal is to expand existing demographic-focused approaches to health human resources planning (HHRP) by moving beyond considerations of supply and utilization by examining the broader factors that influence the health system such as the social, political, geographical, economic, and technological influences.

This program of research is primarily funded through the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), but has the support of numerous researchers, decision-making partners, and co-sponsors from six Canadian jurisdictions.

A related study, an Examination of Relationships among Nursing Service Utilization, an Estimate of Population Health and Overall Health Status Outcomes in the Province of Ontario, had the following objectives.

1) Explore the relationships among the health status of Ontarians, self-report use of nursing and hospital services, and nursing service utilization as reported in Ontario Hospital Management Information System data; (2) Explore the relationship between nursing service utilization and variations in important patient outcomes: mortality, unexplained readmission, length of stay, patient satisfaction; and (3) Determine the added value of including selected health status indicators in the National Population Health Survey to enhance its use for nursing needs-based approaches to population health. The study was co-sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, The Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, and the Nursing Effectiveness, Utilization and Outcomes Research Unit.

Selected Publications:

• O'Brien-Pallas, L., Baumann, A., Birch, S. & Tomblin Murphy, G. (2000). Health human resource planning in homecare: How to approach it that is the question. HealthcarePapers. 1(4):53-59.
  The definitive version can be found at HealthcarePapers.

Links:
For more information, see the Website of the CHSRF/CIHR Chair in Nursing/Health Human Resources: http://www.hhrchair.ca/