In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that the planet was short of nearly 6 million nursing professionals. In a report on the state of the world nursing supply, the UN agency, the international Nursing Now campaign and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) highlight the crucial role of nursing professionals who represent more than half of the medical staff. "Nurses are the backbone of health systems , " said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement. "Today many nurses are on the front lines of the fight against the Covid-19," he said.
According to this report, just under 28 million nursing professionals are practicing worldwide. Between 2014 and 2018, their number increased by 4.7 million but "there remains a deficit of 5.9 million nurses" , the most glaring shortages being in the poorest countries of Africa, South Asia -East, Middle East and South America. The three organizations call on States to identify the most urgent needs and to prioritize investment in training, employment and supervision. The boss of the NAI, Howard Catton, noted that rates of infection, medical errors and mortality rates are "higher when there are too few nurses."
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Mary Watkins, co-author of the report, expressed concern that the wealthiest countries, which do not train enough professionals, depend on immigration and therefore worsen shortages in the countries of departure. "80% of nursing professionals worldwide currently practice for the benefit of 50% of the world's population , " she said.
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, Mary Watkins asked to provide diagnostic tests to screen caregivers, while some reports indicate an infection rate among them of 9% in Italy and up to 14% in Spain. "We have a very high proportion of health workers who will not go to work for fear of being infected" without being able to be certain, she deplored. They also cannot determine if they have been sick, and are now immune and able to return to work.
