Human resource management at the intensive care unit: A pragmatic review and future research agenda for building a learning health system

Recently, the importance of efficient and effective health care has been recognized, especially during the acute phase of the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Intensive care units (ICUs) have faced an immense workload, with massive numbers of patients being treated in a very short period of time. In general, ICUs are required to deliver high-quality care at all times during the year. At the same time, high-quality organizational goals may not be aligned with the interests, motivation, and development of individual staff members (eg, nurses, and doctors). For management of the ICU, it is important to balance the organizational goals and development of the staff members (“their human capital”), usually referred to as human resource management. Although many studies have considered this area, no holistic view of the topic has been presented. Such a holistic view may help leadership and/or other stakeholders at the ICU to design a better learning health system. This pragmatic review aims to provide a conceptual model for the management of ICUs. Future research may also use this conceptual model for studying important factors for designing and understanding human resources in an ICU.