'Every nurse needs to read this report,' says ICN president

The findings of a UN health commission must be read and shared by nurses to help create the 40 million jobs needed in healthcare globally by 2030, says a leading international nurse.

Outgoing International Council of Nursing (ICN) president Judith Shamian was the only nursing voice on a select international group tasked with problem-solving to improve health and economic growth.

Investing in growth

The High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth was established by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in March 2016, and released its final report at the end of the year.

Its task was to make recommendations to stimulate and guide the creation of at least 40 million new jobs in the health and social care sectors and reduce projected shortfalls of 18 million health workers by 2030.

Dr Shamian told the ICN 2017 congress in Barcelona on Monday: 'This report makes the case that investing in health is investing in economic growth.

'I said yesterday that nursing is not an expense, it is an investment. That is not me speaking, that is the global community speaking, based on evidence. Investing in health is investing in the economic success of the country and this is not a language we have talked about before, or a language that we as nurses are used to.'

Recommendations

The report makes six specific recommendations on transforming the health workforce: 

• Job creation – stimulate investment in creating decent health sector jobs particularly for women and young people, with the right skills, in the right numbers, in the right places.
• Gender equality and rights – maximise women’s economic participation through leadership, addressing gender bias and inequity in education and the health labour market.
• Education, training and competencies – prioritise investment in education, relax barriers to entry and address geographical inequity.
• Health service delivery and organisation – reform service models focused on hospital care, and focus on prevention and more high-quality, integrated community-based care.
• Technology – use cost-effective information and communication technologies to enhance health education, people-centred health services and health information systems.
• Crises and humanitarian settings – each country should build the capacity of its health workforce and health systems to detect and respond to public health risks and emergencies.

Dr Shamian added: 'There are tens of millions of unemployed youths in the world, we need to figure out how to help youth and women to enter into the streamline of career progression.

'Put the question to your community, your village elder, your region, your prime minister: "What are we doing in order to help youth, unemployed women or those currently not in the workforce? How can we help them?"

She added: 'It is our social responsibility to speak on behalf of those whose voices cannot be heard.'

Read more

• High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth

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