Nursing's economic value is presently framed within the dominant “outcomes-over-cost” value framework. Within this context, organizations employing nurses often use nursing budget reductions as a cost-minimization strategy, with the intent of retaining high quality outcomes. However, persistent issues such as nurse understaffing, burnout, and turnover threaten healthcare systems' capacity to deliver the quality, equitable, affordable patient care that the public requires. In this paper, we propose a new conceptual model and definition of nursing's economic value. The model development is guided by the convergence of three classic economic frameworks: human capital theory, production theory, and value theory. Grounded in these theories, we envision nursing as a value-adding human capital asset and explicitly link nursing staff characteristics and allocation to the production of healthcare services and organizational financial outcomes. We redefine nursing's economic value as the return on investment (ROI) in nursing human capital reflected in the improvement of consumer, nurse, and organizational outcomes. This new conceptual model, termed the Nursing Human Capital Value Model, presents a cycle of value creation that starts with investments in growing, developing and sustaining an organization's nursing human capital. Nurses, as a human capital asset, deliver nursing care—a foundational ingredient to the production of healthcare services and consumer outcomes. Improved outcomes, subsequently, drive organizational revenue growth. Finally, the accrued revenue is reinvested in nursing, further propelling the cycle's continuation. This innovative model, which is applicable across health systems financed through both governmental and private/non-governmental payor sources, highlights that investment in nursing human capital development is essential for sustainable value generation, identifying opportunities for optimizing nurses' contributions to the value cycle. By directly incorporating economic theories of human capital, production, and value, our model paves the way for future research on the dynamic scope of nursing's economic contribution within healthcare organizations and systems and underscores its necessity for the long-term sustainability and growth of the nursing profession.

中文翻译：

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护理人力资本价值模型


护理的经济价值目前被界定在占主导地位的“结果高于成本”价值框架内。在这种背景下，雇用护士的组织经常将护理预算削减作为成本最小化策略，目的是保持高质量的结果。然而，护士人手不足、倦怠和流动等持续存在的问题威胁着医疗保健系统提供公众所需的优质、公平、负担得起的患者护理的能力。在本文中，我们提出了护理经济价值的新概念模型和定义。该模型的开发以三个经典经济框架的融合为指导：人力资本理论、生产理论和价值理论。基于这些理论，我们将护理视为一种增值的人力资本资产，并将护理人员的特征和分配与医疗服务的生产和组织的财务成果明确联系起来。我们将护理的经济价值重新定义为护理人力资本的投资回报（ROI），反映在消费者、护士和组织成果的改善上。这个新的概念模型被称为护理人力资本价值模型，它提出了一个价值创造的循环，该循环始于对组织护理人力资本的增长、发展和维持的投资。护士作为人力资本资产，提供护理服务——这是提供医疗服务和消费者成果的基本要素。随后，改善的结果会推动组织收入的增长。最后，应计收入再投资于护理，进一步推动周期的继续。 这种创新模式适用于通过政府和私人/非政府支付来源资助的整个卫生系统，强调对护理人力资本开发的投资对于可持续价值创造至关重要，并确定优化护士对价值周期贡献的机会。通过直接纳入人力资本、生产和价值的经济理论，我们的模型为未来研究护理在医疗保健组织和系统中经济贡献的动态范围铺平了道路，并强调了其对护理长期可持续性和增长的必要性职业。