Healthcare workforce shortages are often framed as a staffing problem, but in this episode of Care Anywhere: From the Bench, the conversation challenges a more fundamental question: What if the real issue is how care itself is designed?
Host Lea Sims is joined by Sylvain Trepanier, Board Chair of TruMerit and System Chief Nurse Executive for Providence, and Ching-Min Chen, Dean of the College of Nursing at Kaohsiung Medical University, to discuss TruMerit’s latest report, Safe Staffing Through New Models of Care. Together, they explore why traditional approaches to recruitment and retention alone will not solve workforce challenges unless healthcare systems rethink how care is organized, delivered, and supported.

The conversation introduces a new framework for workforce transformation built around three interconnected domains: systems and inputs, service delivery, and outcomes. Syl and Ching-Min explain how regulations, technology infrastructure, workforce well-being, interprofessional collaboration, and patient-centered design must work together to create more sustainable models of care that meet the needs of both patients and healthcare professionals.

The episode also highlights innovative examples from around the world, including telehealth programs in Malawi and rural communities that expand access to specialized expertise while strengthening local clinical capacity. These models demonstrate how technology can help address workforce gaps, improve access to care, and support clinicians without sacrificing the human connection at the heart of healthcare.

Lea, Syl, and Ching-Min also examine the growing role of virtual nursing, artificial intelligence, and digital tools in the future of care delivery. Rather than replacing clinicians, they argue, these technologies should be used to reduce administrative burden, strengthen team-based care, and enable healthcare professionals to practice at the top of their education and training.

Listeners will come away with a deeper understanding of why workforce sustainability requires more than filling vacancies. It demands new models of care that prioritize workforce well-being, patient outcomes, and system resilience in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape.