The global nursing shortage was a well recognised issue prior to the pandemic. In 2020, the first State of the World’s Nursing (SOWN) report, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), revealed the global nursing workforce was at 27.9 million and estimated there was a global shortfall of 5.9 million nurses¹.

With the ageing of the nursing workforce, 17% of nurses globally are expected to retire within in the next ten years, and 4.7 million additional nurses will need to be educated and employed just to maintain current workforce numbers, let alone address the shortages. In total, 10.6 million additional nurses will be needed by 2030.

The pandemic has magnified and exacerbated the global nursing shortage issues and obviously increased risks to the health workforce, including occupational infections, stress and burnout from months of caring for COVID-19 patients. In some countries, nurses  have in addition faced physical violence and psychosocial stigma.

Looking ahead, more nursing programs are turning to simulation to help them do more with less so they can continue to meet an urgent need. Below, we share how simulation in nursing education is playing a role in helping schools produce practice-ready nurses in 2022.