Managing people, human capital and culture - Human Resource Management (HRM) is critical for business success. HRM Guide publishes articles and news releases about HR surveys, employment law, human resource research, HR books and careers that bridge the gap between theory and practice.

January 4 2002 - Evidence is replacing guesswork for planning health human resources in Nova Scotia. "We are learning how to plan health human resources based on what we know about the age, sex, and health status of a population," says Gail Tomblin Murphy, Associate Professor of Nursing at Dalhousie University. "Health human resource planning is moving into a new stage. We are now collecting the evidence that will enable policy makers to make decisions based on need."

And the days of predictions based solely on doctor/patient and nurse/patient ratios are over, she adds. "For years we have tried to determine health human resource planning needs in ways that make no sense. We had no evidence. We only looked at supply - how many physicians do we have, how many nurses, how many physiotherapists, etc. - not how many do we require based on the health needs of people."

Her research is funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF), and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will help decision-makers determine their health human resource needs.

Together with Dr. Linda O'Brien-Pallas, National Chair in Nursing Resource Planning (CHSRF/CIHR) and Professor at the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, Professor Tomblin Murphy is working on developing a model for future planning. Her team of researchers are collating records of nursing use with a national population health survey. They will use this information to estimate the relationship between health services use and population health needs to look for patterns to help predict future resource needs.

Professor Tomblin Murphy was a speaker at a workshop hosted by NSHRF which brought about 50 experts from Atlantic Canada together explore the issue of health human resources. Intended to help establish working partnerships among researchers, policy-makers, and clinicians to create collaborative research projects and address major issues in health human resources, the workshop also encouraged frank discussion identify research gaps and needs.

"We are committed to building capacity among Atlantic Canadian researchers," says Krista Connell, NSHRF executive director and host of the workshop. "We hope that workshops like this one will give researchers the insight into what granting agencies are looking for."

"Collaboration is the key to winning major research awards," she adds. "Granting agencies want to see partnerships among researchers, clinical managers, and policy-makers that ensure projects will be used, not just sit around in journals."

• More Canadian Workplace Health Articles