How to identify and recruit nurses to a survey 14 and 24 years after graduation in a context of scarce data: lessons learnt from the 2012 nurses at work pilot study on nurses' career paths.

Background: Nursing workforce data are scarce in Switzerland, with no active national registry of nurses. The worldwide nursing shortage is also affecting Switzerland, so that evidence-based results of the nurses at work project on career paths and retention are needed as part of the health care system stewardship; nurses at work is a retrospective cohort study of nurses who graduated in Swiss nursing schools in the last 30 years. Results of the pilot study are presented here (process and feasibility).