World Needs 6 Million Additional Nurses to Fight Covid-19
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World Needs 6 Million...
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World Needs 6 Million Additional Nurses to Fight Covid-19
There is an urgent need for more nurses, as health workers around the world on the front lines have contracted the virus that causes Covid-19 while treating patients, with dozens dying from the disease.
By
LUKI AULIA
·4 minutes read
AFP/MARCO BERTORELLO
Nurses work to prepare the Intensive care unit in the new Covid-19 Hospital on March 29, 2020 in Verduno, near Alba, Northwestern Italy on the eve of its official opening, as part of the measures taken to fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus. - The hospital have seven beds of intensive care and fifty beds for patients infected by the COVID-19.
GENEVA, TUESDAY – The World Health Organization (WHO) has pointed out that the world needs an additional six million nurses at the very least to combat the pandemic. The latest figures show that 28 million nurses are available worldwide, an increase of 4.7 million nurses in 2014-2018.
The world is still short of at least 5.9 million nurses, with the greatest need among the poorest countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and parts of South America.
According to a WHO report published on Tuesday (04/07/2020) in cooperation with Nursing Now and the International Council of Nurses (ICN), nurses play an important role in health services, numbering more than half of all medical staff throughout the world. The report encourages several countries to identify shortcomings in their health system and invest immediately in education, recruit and strengthen leadership in the nursing field.
"Nurses are the backbone of any health system. Today, many nurses find themselves on the frontline in the battle against Covid-19. This report is a stark reminder of the unique role they play, and a wakeup call to ensure they get the support they need to keep the world healthy,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a written statement.
A health worker in protective gear comforts a colleague during shift change on 13 March 2020 at a hospital in Cremona to the southeast of Milan in Lombardy, Italy. The entire region, the epicenter of the Italian outbreak, was placed under quarantine to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The need for nurses is urgent because many doctors and nurses have been infected on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, and dozens have died from the disease they contracted while tending to Covid-19 patients. In Turkey, for example, more than 600 nurses have contracted the virus, while 12,298 medical workers in Spain have also contracted the virus.
ICN CEO Howard Catton said that the important role of nurses had been proven through looking at existing cases, which found that areas lacking nurses saw a high number of cases of infection, medication errors, and death rates. "Nurses are now exhausted," he added.
Mary Watkins of Nursing Now encouraged all medical workers to undergo immediate viral testing to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Many medical workers did not want to work for fear of becoming infected, and they also did not know for certain whether they had been infected or not.
Catton said that at least 100 medical workers worldwide had died of Covid-19.
AFP/MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
Nurses and supporters protest the lack of personal protective gear available at UCI Medical Center amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 3, 2020 in Orange, California. Hospitals nationwide are facing shortages of PPE due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Social discrimination
Catton also condemned those people who had attacked medical staff who had been working hard and at risk of disease in caring for patients with Covid-19. He called on all countries to provide protection for medical workers and for governments to disseminate accurate and fact-based information on Covid-19 to address the issue.
This clearly needs proper communication with the public, and all medical personnel must be protected
According to Giorgio Cometto of the WHO Health Workforce Department, this was the first occasion that medical workers were seen as a potential risk in viral transmission as opposed to persons who were contributing to efforts to tackle Covid-19.
"This clearly needs proper communication with the public, and all medical personnel must be protected," he said.
Migrant nurses
The lack of appreciation for the nursing profession can be seen in wealthy countries that do not produce enough nurses to meet their own needs. They instead rely on migrant nurses who usually come from the Philippines and India, which in turn contributes to a shortage of nursing staff in these countries.
"Currently, 80 percent of the world\'s nurses only serve 50 percent of the world\'s population," said Watkins.
Support for nurses would change, said Watkins, if more men trained as nurses. This was not just conjecture, but had been proven in a number of countries, she said. So far, the majority of professional nurses were women. "If there were more men, salaries and facilities for nurses will improve," she said. (REUTERS/AFP/AP)
AFP/ALEXANDRE MARCHI / POOL
French nurses take care of four patients infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a medicalised TGV (high-speed train) at Nancy train station as 24 patients from Nancy and Metz are being transfered from Nancy and Metz towards Bordeaux, Libourne, Pau and Bayonne, on March 29, 2020. - Medical staff helping in this train come from the French regions of Ile de France, Nouvelle Aquitaine and Grand Est.
