Strengthening the Nursing Workforce
SullivanCotter helps health care organizations strengthen nurse recruitment and retention, align compensation and career frameworks, and design workforce models that support high‑quality care.
Contact Us to Get StartedToday’s Nursing Challenges
Registered nurses remain central to care delivery, yet many organizations continue to face staff shortages, burnout, turnover, and increasing competition for experienced clinical talent. At the same time, rising patient demand and evolving care models are
forcing leaders to rethink how nursing teams are structured, supported, and rewarded.
Key Challenges Include:
Inefficient Staffing Models
Unclear Career Pathways
Lack of Defined Skills
Market-Lagging Compensation Structures
Leadership Span-of-Control Challenges
Partnering with SullivanCotter
Designing Nursing Workforce Strategies That Support Performance
SullivanCotter partners with hospitals and health systems to design nursing workforce strategies aligned with today’s clinical and operational realities and future needs in mind.
SullivanCotter helps organizations assess workforce models, including workforce planning, career structures, skills development, and compensation programs, so nursing teams are deployed effectively, supported appropriately, and positioned to deliver high‑quality care.
By combining industry-leading data, workforce analytics, and deep clinical workforce expertise, we help organizations optimize nursing teams, strengthen leadership structures, and ensure nurses are practicing at the top of their license within well-designed care delivery models.
Essential Survey
Registered Nursing Compensation Survey
Access market-driven compensation insights to attract and retain registered nursing talent in a competitive environment.
Learn MoreHow We Help
SullivanCotter works with health care organizations to design workforce models, career and skills frameworks, and compensation programs that support a sustainable nursing workforce.
We help organizations design nursing workforce models that align staffing structures, team composition, and scope of practice with care delivery needs—ensuring nurses and other clinicians are working at the top of their license.
Our advisory work includes:
Nursing workforce planning and staffing model design
Clinical workforce optimization and role deployment
Nursing leadership structure and span-of-control analysis
Care team configuration and skill mix strategy
Workforce analytics and staffing metrics
Clear career pathways and role structures are essential for retaining experienced nurses and supporting professional development. We help organizations create structured nursing career frameworks that support both workforce stability and clinical advancement.
Our services include:
Nursing job architecture and titling structures
Clinical ladder design and career progression models
Nursing leadership structure and span-of-control analysis
Experience crediting and role segmentation
Workforce structure analysis and span-of-control benchmarking
Development of nursing skills taxonomies (clinical, technical, and behavioral competencies by role and level)
Mapping skills to roles, career levels, and clinical ladders to enable transparent progression
Identification of critical and scarce skill sets (e.g., specialty certifications, advanced procedures) to inform workforce strategy
Skills-based career pathways (progression driven by capability attainment vs. tenure alone)
Alignment of skills with learning, credentialing, and certification frameworks
Integration of skills into HRIS and talent systems (skills tagging, profiles, and reporting)
Development of skills-based workforce planning insights (supply/demand, gaps, and redeployment opportunities)
Competitive and well-designed compensation programs are essential to attracting and retaining nursing talent in today’s labor market. We help organizations design compensation programs that reflect market dynamics while supporting workforce engagement and financial sustainability.
Our services include:
Market benchmarking and pay structure design
Shift differentials, on-call, and premium pay design
Per diem and alternative work arrangement strategies
Nursing pay philosophy and policy development
Total rewards program design for nursing populations
Partner with SullivanCotter
Through Co-Sourcing
SullivanCotter’s co-sourcing model provides embedded support within your HR and compensation function—delivering ongoing benchmarking, administration, and advisory expertise.
We work alongside your team to maintain operational continuity, strengthen governance, and ensure consistent, data-driven execution. Our approach helps organizations manage complexity while building long-term internal capability.
Learn MoreInsight Spotlight
How Nursing Team Structure Impacts Patient Outcomes
Care team design plays a critical role in both workforce sustainability and patient outcomes. Research shows that the way nursing teams are structured—including staffing levels, skill mix, and collaboration across care roles—can directly influence quality measures such as hospital readmissions.
SullivanCotter examines how nursing team configuration affects performance and what leaders should consider when designing care delivery models that support both patient outcomes and workforce stability.
Read the Article
“Health systems that thoughtfully design nursing workforce structures, career pathways, skills development, and compensation strategies are better positioned to stabilize their workforce and support high-quality care.”
Kristina Hudson, Principal, SullivanCotter
Registered Nursing Surveys
SullivanCotter’s Registered Nursing Compensation Survey provides one of the most comprehensive sources of benchmarking data on nursing compensation, pay practices, and workforce trends across health care organizations. The survey includes data from more than a thousand participating organizations and hundreds of thousands of nursing incumbents. Explore this and other related surveys below.
Pulse on the Industry
Stay current with SullivanCotter research and thought leadership on nursing workforce trends, compensation practices, care team design, and strategies to recruit and retain clinical talent in an evolving health care environment.
Let’s Architect Your Solution
Ready to strengthen your nursing workforce strategy? Contact SullivanCotter to get started.
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