Lay summary
Approximately 59% of health professionals are nurses. Covid exacerbated existing nursing shortages. In 2017, 27% of new NZ nurses left within 2 years; in the USA 31% now leave within one year. Improving the attractiveness of nursing in NZ is vital. Te Toka Tumai is striving to retain new nurses and increase the Māori nursing workforce (currently only 7%) and Pacific nurses to improve equity of outcomes. This long-term collaborative research project uses systematic quality improvement methodology to identify what early-career nurses identify matters to them, what the organisation is doing well, and what needs to improve. Early-career nurses and nurse leaders/managers will codesign workforce management approaches that support the nurses to thrive at work. This will improve recruitment and retention, which has been proven to improve patient safety and outcomes. KPIs will be agreed annually between early-career nurses and leadership/management to improve engagement and accountability.