Global Critical Shortage of Nurses: Pathway to Solution
Almas Bandeali, Zeeba Maita
Abstract
In 2020, the first State of the World’s Nursing (SOWN) report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed global nursing workforce to be at 27.9 million. SOWN estimated a current global nursing shortfall of 5.9 million. Furthermore, 17% of nurses are expected to retire in next 10 years. An estimated 5.3 million (89%) of that shortage is concentrated in low and lower-middle income countries, where the growth in the number of nurses is barely keeping pace with population growth. WHO global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (SDNM) 2022 report has identified policy focus interventions for four major areas: education, jobs, leadership, and service delivery. Nurse advocacy groups like International Council of Nurses (ICN) are calling on governments to partner with various healthcare stakeholders to find tangible solutions in addressing global nursing shortage (NS).