Making the business case for nursing: Justifying investments in nurse staffing and high-quality practice environments

“Making the business case for nursing” is common shorthand these days for efforts to untangle the inputs and outputs of nursing education and service and provide the data necessary for making responsible decisions about resource allocation. Given the challenges facing American health care, nurse leaders must shape the future of nursing services within their facilities, communicate with nonnurse health care leaders and policymakers about alternatives for securing sufficient nurses and other nursing personnel to meet patient needs, and propose and implement the best strategies and models for ensuring optimal nursing care. They must articulate the consequences of making and not making certain investments as clearly as possible to multiple stakeholders.