Value-based care has fundamentally changed the conversation about healthcare performance. Organizations are increasingly measured not simply by the volume of care they deliver, but by the quality, safety, outcomes, patient experience, equity, and value they create. Research examining value-based healthcare from the perspective of healthcare professionals emphasizes the importance of improving quality and performance while using healthcare resources sustainably (van Engen et al., 2022). Yet one critical component of value-based care is often discussed separately from the clinical and financial strategies that support it: the healthcare workforce.

Nurses are an essential part of this conversation, but they are not alone. Healthcare is delivered by an interconnected workforce that includes physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, medical assistants, technicians, therapists, social workers, care coordinators, behavioral health professionals, and many others. Every member of this workforce contributes to the patient journey and, ultimately, to the outcomes healthcare organizations are being asked to achieve.

If we expect healthcare professionals to consistently deliver high-value care, we must rethink how we educate, prepare, support, and retain the entire healthcare workforce.

From Education to Workforce Readiness

The traditional approach to healthcare education was designed for a different healthcare environment. Today’s workforce enters practice facing increasingly complex patients, rapidly evolving technology, staffing pressures, workforce shortages, and growing expectations for interprofessional collaboration and evidence-based care. National workforce projections continue to demonstrate the need for strategic approaches to developing and sustaining the healthcare workforce (Health Resources and Services Administration [HRSA], 2025).

Education cannot stop at graduation or initial credentialing. Healthcare professionals need structured opportunities to develop clinical judgment, communication, teamwork, cultural responsiveness, technology skills, and the ability to care for increasingly complex patient populations.

This is where workforce development strategies such as residency programs, apprenticeships, internships, fellowships, and academic-practice partnerships can play an important role.

Rather than viewing graduation as the end of education, healthcare organizations should view the transition into practice as a critical period of professional development. Evidence across the professional care workforce supports the importance of approaches that strengthen recruitment, education, retention, and workforce capability (Morris et al., 2023).

For example, the Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program provides a structured transition-to-practice model for new graduate nurses, with an emphasis on professional development, interprofessional practice, quality and safety, leadership, and patient-centered care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], n.d.). Although nurse residency is specific to nursing, the underlying principle is applicable across healthcare: professionals benefit when organizations intentionally support the transition from education into practice.

The potential value extends beyond the individual employee. Supporting healthcare professionals during the transition to practice can contribute to retention, professional development, workforce stability, and organizational performance. Workforce retention is influenced by multiple factors, including working conditions, professional development, organizational support, and opportunities for growth (De Vries et al., 2023).

Apprenticeships: Connecting Learning to Value

Apprenticeship and earn-while-you-learn models represent another opportunity to rethink healthcare workforce development. These models integrate paid employment with structured education and supervised workplace learning, creating a stronger connection between what individuals learn and how they ultimately practice.

The U.S. Department of Labor describes apprenticeship as an industry-driven pathway that combines paid work experience, classroom instruction, and structured training, with healthcare among the growing fields in which apprenticeship models can be applied (U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.).

Although nursing has become an important area for healthcare apprenticeship development, the concept has broader application across the healthcare workforce. Apprenticeship models can provide pathways into careers while allowing individuals to earn income, develop practical skills, receive mentorship, and progressively demonstrate competency.

Recent work examining nursing and allied health apprenticeships similarly highlights the potential of employer-led, competency-based education to address workforce shortages while connecting academic preparation with real-world clinical practice (Kroning & Ripa, 2026).

This approach can also help address some of the financial and access barriers that prevent individuals from entering healthcare professions. At the same time, employers have an opportunity to participate directly in developing the workforce they need.

The larger opportunity is to move from viewing clinical and workplace education as simply a requirement for completing a program to viewing it as an essential component of workforce strategy.

The Academic-Practice Partnership Must Evolve

Achieving this transformation requires healthcare organizations, educational institutions, workforce organizations, policymakers, and community partners to work differently together.

Historically, education and practice have sometimes operated as parallel systems. Educational institutions prepare students, while healthcare organizations receive graduates and then provide orientation and additional training. Value-based care challenges us to think beyond this handoff model.

The future requires a more integrated partnership in which educators and employers jointly identify workforce needs, define competencies, strengthen experiential learning, and evaluate outcomes. This does not mean compromising academic standards. Rather, it means ensuring that education remains connected to the evolving needs of patients, communities, and healthcare systems.

Healthcare organizations should move from being passive recipients of graduates to becoming active partners in workforce development.

This partnership model is particularly important as healthcare organizations seek to develop career pathways that allow individuals to enter the workforce, advance their education, and continue developing throughout their careers. Stackable credentials, apprenticeships, residencies, and employer-supported education can create greater mobility while helping organizations develop talent internally (Kroning & Ripa, 2026).

Measuring the Value of the Workforce

If workforce development is part of value-based care, we should also become more intentional about measuring its impact.

Traditional workforce metrics such as vacancy, turnover, and time-to-fill remain important, but they are not enough. Organizations should consider how workforce investments influence competence, patient safety, quality outcomes, patient experience, access, engagement, retention, and the successful transition of new professionals into practice.

The question should not simply be, “How many healthcare professionals did we hire?”

Instead, we should ask:

Are we developing a workforce that is prepared to deliver safe, equitable, evidence-based, patient-centered care—and are we creating environments that allow that workforce to remain engaged and successful?

That shift changes workforce development from a human resources function into a strategic component of organizational performance.

A New Definition of Value

The future of value-based care will depend on more than payment models and clinical metrics. It will depend on whether healthcare organizations can build and sustain a workforce capable of delivering the outcomes those models demand.

Investing in healthcare professionals is therefore not separate from value-based care—it is fundamental to it.

Residency programs, apprenticeships, academic-practice partnerships, experiential learning, and innovative workforce pathways provide opportunities to create a more intentional continuum from education to practice. They can strengthen the connection between workforce investment, professional development, retention, patient experience, and health outcomes.

Healthcare leaders have an opportunity to move beyond asking whether we have enough people to asking whether we are developing the right workforce, with the right skills, in the right way, with the support necessary to deliver meaningful value.

The future of value-based care may ultimately depend on a simple premise:

Better outcomes begin with a workforce intentionally prepared, supported, and empowered to achieve them.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (n.d.). Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program. https://www.aacnnursing.org/our-initiatives/education-practice/nurse-residency-program

De Vries, N., Lavreysen, O., Boone, A., Bouman, J., Szemik, S., Baranski, K., Godderis, L., & De Winter, P. (2023). Retaining healthcare workers: A systematic review of strategies for sustaining power in the workplace. Healthcare, 11(13), 1887. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11131887

Health Resources and Services Administration. (2025). Nurse workforce projections, 2023–2038. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/nursing-projections-factsheet.pdf

Kroning, M., & Ripa, K. (2026). Apprenticeships: Transforming nursing and allied health education. Nursing2026, 56(12), 49–55. https://doi.org/10.1097/NSG.0000000000000467

Morris, M. E., Brusco, K. N., McAleer, R., Billett, S., Brophy, L., Bryant, R., Carey, L., Conley Wright, A., East, C., Eckert, M., Edvardsson, K., Fetherstonhaugh, D., Fowler-Davis, S., Frederico, M., Gray, R., McCaskie, D., McKinstry, C., Mitchell, R., Oldenburg, B., Shields, N., Smith, K., Spelten, E., Taylor, N., Thwaites, C., & Young, S. (2023). Professional care workforce: A rapid review of evidence supporting methods of recruitment, retention, safety, and education. Human Resources for Health, 21(1), 95. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-023-00879-5

U.S. Department of Labor. (n.d.). Apprenticeship. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/program-areas/apprenticeship

van Engen, V., Bonfrer, I., Ahaus, K., & Buljac-Samardzic, M. (2022). Value-based healthcare from the perspective of the healthcare professional: A systematic literature review. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 800702. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.800702