[Excerpt from summary] Traditional Human Resource Planning (HR planning) strategies have provided less than satisfactory and only temporary relief to the nursing resource pressures within the health care system. The crisis-management approach has done little to promote an effective, efficient and stable workforce. This study, involving 24 investigators and 23 sites, examined ways to develop a patient needs-based approach to HR planning and used End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) as the example.