THE World Health Organization has estimated a global shortage of nurses by 7.6 million by the year 2030.
This was revealed in the WHO preliminary report on the status of the nursing profession worldwide.
While presenting a summary of the State of the World’s Nursing report at the inaugural meeting for Pacific Heads of Nurses in Nadi yesterday.
WHO Western Pacific region NCD and health team co-ordinator Dr Wendy Snowdon said nurses were an important part of the health system.
He said the gap between the need and the number of nurses was increasing and needed to be addressed.
“Across the globe, around 25 per cent of the world’s nurses are in the Western Pacific region.
“Globally there are around 28 million nurses and so far 59 per cent of the global health professions are made up of nurses.”
Dr Snowdon said there was an inequity of the distribution of nurses. She said the full report would highlight nursing status from 193 countries including Fiji.
“Almost all WHO member states were able to report data on their nursing stock and the majority on other key indicators such as distribution, gender composition and duration of training.”
The WHO State of the World’s Nursing report will describe how the nursing workforce will help deliver universal health coverage (UHC) and the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and highlight areas for policy development for the next three to five years.
It will also provide a technical description of the nursing workforce in member States, including the number and types of nurses, education, regulation, practice, leadership, and gender issues.
The State of the World’s Midwifery 2020 will report on the progress and future challenges to deliver effective coverage and quality midwifery services.
The inaugural meeting for Pacific Heads of Nurses continues today.