Impact of Public Policy on Nursing Employment: Providing the Evidence

Due to economic instability, employment status has been shifting over time. Organizations have been moving toward a flexible contingent workforce. An early study of employment patterns demonstrated a significant rise in part-time and casual employment in the Ontario nursing workforce ( Baumann et al. 2006 ). The Nursing Graduate Guarantee, a public policy initiative, represents a substantial investment by the provincial government to stimulate full-time employment. This article presents the results of a trend analysis of nurse employment. Results indicated that stimulus funding attached to the public policy influenced employment of new graduate nurses.