By 2025, the US is expected to have a shortage of up to 450,000 nurses available for direct patient care, according to McKinsey. Some states are taking legislative action to boost funding and incentives to expand the nursing workforce. Also doing their part are Futuro Health, a Kaiser Permanente-founded organization working to address shortages in healthcare, and workforce development company Dignity Health Global Education. They have partnered to develop paths in California that help individuals transition from education to employment to advanced positions in healthcare.

"In California, we're seeing higher-than-usual exits of seasoned registered nurses and slow absorption of new graduates, creating a 2021 gap in California of 40,567 RNs. We need to groom the nursing pipeline and, until new RNs are grown, other allied health occupations shall be needed to augment the care team," says Joanne Spetz, director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California San Francisco HealthForce Center and board member with Futuro Health.

The organizations aim to work with California healthcare employers to develop customized training for students as well as expand tuition-free nursing education that equips individuals with the skills to meet future job needs.

"Our collaboration will focus on the breakdowns in the workforce pipeline. Our best practices can combine in novel ways and surface scalable solutions that pay attention to diversity and the skills needed for workers to be relevant," says Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan.