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A shortage of nurses across the world has created a global health emergency.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) estimates 13 million nurses will need to be replaced within the coming years.
ICNs March 2023 report says the global nursing shortage was as high as 30.6 million in 2019. That was before the pandemic.
The pandemic has exacerbated that shortage, the report says.
Back in its January 2022 report, the ICN pointed to the Covid-effect on staffing. It spoke of “burnt out” nurses leaving the profession or taking absence. Or going where they’re better paid.
As an example, nearly 5,000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia since August.
Many are taking up lucrative short-term contracts of up to NZ$8500 a week.
Change is possible
Nursing may be in a profound staffing crisis, but this can be changed, ICN says.
“During recovery and rebuild, every working nurse deserves consideration.
“Three years into the pandemic, there are several key policy responses that are required to support the nurse workforce and therefore enable a health system rebuild.
“This includes investment in redeploying resources to other parts of the health system to enable the backlog of non-COVID-19 care to be dealt with.
“It will involve investing in a well-supported global nursing workforce – a necessity for global health systems to recover and be rebuilt effectively.”
“Nurses are the professionals who can lead us out of this post-pandemic slump in healthcare, but they can do that only if there are enough of them, if they are properly supported and paid, and if the fragile health systems they work in are rejuvenated with large investments from governments everywhere,” says ICN president Pamela Cipriano.
A lack of investment in nurse education has resulted in insufficient nurses being trained, globally.
Relying on the “quick fix” of international recruitment instead of investing in nursing education won’t work either.
This contributes to staff shortages, even in countries like the Philippines and India that traditionally educate nurses to work in higher-income countries.
The report warns policy makers:
“To avoid …nurses reaching breaking point, … give proper attention to the impact of … rebuild decisions on individual nurses and the nurse workforce.
“If policy makers focus only at the system level … nurse retention and longer-term supply will worsen.”
The global health emergency
Since the pandemic began, 40 to 80 percent of the world’s nurses had experienced symptoms of psychological distress.
The number of nurses reporting they intend leaving their job had risen to 20 percent or higher.
Annual staff turnover in hospitals rose to 10 percent or higher.
“The worldwide shortage of nurses needs to be considered as a global health emergency and recovery from the current situation must be a priority for governments everywhere,” says ICN chief executive Howard Catton.
“The recovery of the nursing workforce is an essential prerequisite to rebuilding our health systems, … without a sustainable, properly distributed global nursing workforce, the realisation of the goal of health for all will only ever be a pipe dream.”
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