Nursing Talent Management Models: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Healthcare systems worldwide are facing an unprecedented nursing workforce crisis driven by staff shortages, population ageing, increasing care complexity, and difficulties in retaining qualified professionals. Although talent management has emerged as a strategic organisational approach to address these challenges, its application within hospital nursing remains fragmented and has not yet been systematically synthesised. Objective: To map the available scientific evidence on organisational approaches to talent management in hospital nursing. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and reported according to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A comprehensive search was performed on 20 February 2026 across MEDLINE, CINAHL® Plus with Full Text, Nursing & Allied Health Collection, MedicLatina, CENTRAL, CDSR, LILACS, SciELO, RCAAP, and additional grey literature sources. Eligibility criteria were established using the Population–Concept–Context (PCC) framework. Study selection and data extraction were independently conducted by two reviewers. Results: From 8534 records identified, 11 eligible records representing 10 independent studies were included. Four core Talent Management processes were identified: talent identification, development, retention and evaluation. The interpretative synthesis further distinguished organisational antecedents, including participative leadership, development-oriented cultures, professional recognition and academic–practice partnerships; relational and motivational mechanisms, including work engagement, psychological contract fulfilment and social capital; and workforce and organisational outcomes, particularly retention intention, leadership development and organisational commitment. These findings informed the development of an integrated conceptual framework for Talent Management in hospital nursing. Conclusions: The available evidence suggests that Talent Management may be more appropriately conceptualised as an integrated organisational capability rather than as a set of isolated human resource practices. This review provides an integrated mapping of the available evidence on Talent Management models specifically focused on hospital nursing, offering a conceptual foundation to support future research, organisational strategies and model development.