The organization advocates increased access to advanced degree programs, inter-professional education and lifelong learning opportunities for the region’s nursing workforce.
On the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, May 12, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) observed International Nurses Day.
For the observance, PAHO called on member countries to transform nursing education as part of efforts toward universal health.
“Nurses are fundamental to health systems delivering the vast majority of healthcare services, yet our region is facing serious nursing shortages, and we are not taking full advantage of the nursing workforce that we have,” said PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne. “We need to increase the numbers of nurses but in addition, we need to improve nursing education and practice to fully develop and utilize nurses’ skills, knowledge and experiences.”
Nurses account for 60-89 percent of the healthcare workforce and deliver up to 90 percent of all healthcare services. They serve as frontline providers in health promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation in both well-served and underserved areas.
Currently in Latin America and the Caribbean, most nurses are trained either at the Baccalaureate level as licensed or registered nurses, or as auxiliary and technical nurses with Associate degrees. Graduates of masters programs in nursing typically end up teaching or in management rather than in clinical care. Only 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean offer doctoral programs for nurses, three-quarters of which are concentrated in Brazil.
As a result, PAHO/WHO urged its member governments to transform nursing education and practice in their countries by updating nursing curricula to better address the primary health care needs of the population; incorporating inter-professional education and greater focus on primary health care into nursing curricula; instituting programs for advanced practice nurses (APN) and implementing a key role for them in primary healthcare services; promoting higher education and advanced degrees for nurses; and by creating lifelong educational opportunities for nurses.
Experts said these changes help reverse the healthcare provider shortage, strengthen the nursing workforce, and speed progress toward universal health by increasing the cost-effectiveness, efficiency and quality of health services.
As part of its technical cooperation in this area, PAHO currently facilitates country-to-country partnerships dedicated to building competencies for nursing faculty and is supporting the development of a set of nursing competencies for APN education. In addition, PAHO coordinates an annual Advanced Practice Nursing Summit, where nursing leaders from throughout the Americas gather to promote the implementation of the APN role in primary health care.
