International Nurses Day 2022
– Invest in Nursing and Respect the Rights to Secure Global Health -

Priyanka Saurabh *

International Nurses Day celebrated at Lamphelpat on May 12 2022 :: Pix - TSE

Nursing binds the human society with a bond of care and affection.

International Nurses Day is celebrated annually on 12 May. May 12 was chosen to celebrate this day as it is the birth anniversary of the philosopher Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Nursing binds the human society with a bond of care and affection.

Nursing is the call to care, providing a pool of touching stories and challenges. The scope of nursing has now expanded everywhere except the hospital. Nurses deal with the most precious thing in this wider world- 'human life'. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2022 as the Year of Leading to Lead – Invest in Nursing and Respect the Rights to Secure Global Health.

More than half of all healthcare workers in the world are nurses. This will encourage the entire nurse community and the public to celebrate this day as well as provide the necessary information and resources to raise the profile of the nursing profession. Nurses are at the forefront of fighting epidemics and epidemics by providing high-quality and respectable treatment and care.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a reminder of the important role nurses play. Without nurses and other health workers, it is not possible to win the battle against outbreaks and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals or Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Globally, there are about 36.9 nurses per 10,000 people, with further variations within different regions. There are about 10 times more nurses in the US than in the African region. While the former has 83.4 nurses per 10,000 population, the latter has 8.7 nurses per 10,000 population. By 2030, there will be a shortage of more than 5.7 million nurses worldwide.

The biggest reduction in absolute numbers is in the Southeast Asian region, while in the US and Europe, the problem is different as they face an aging nursing workforce. In addition, many high-income countries in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the American regions depend "exclusively" on migrant nurses.

Their actions require recognition; The report highlights that the work of nurses is critical in meeting national and global goals related to universal health care, mental health, non-communicable diseases, emergency preparedness, and response.

Nurses play an important role in the field of healthcare. Their role, especially during the current health crisis, is of paramount importance. Overall, nurses are important in ensuring the quality of care given to a patient, preventing and controlling infection, and combating antimicrobial resistance.

As of 2018, there were over 1.56 million nurses and 772,575 nursing aides in India. Of this, professional nurses account for 67 percent, with 322,827 graduates every year and a minimum training period of four years.

Within the health workforce, nurses comprise 47 percent of medical workers, followed by doctors (23.3 percent), dentists (5.5 percent), and pharmacists (24.1 percent). In addition, 88 percent of the nurses in India are women in large numbers. This is in line with the structure of nursing observed globally, where 90 percent are women.

Provide occupational safety and health of nurses and all healthcare workers, including access to personal protective equipment, so that they can safely provide care and reduce infections in health care settings.

Nurses and all health care workers should have access to mental health support, timely pay, sick leave, and insurance. They should be given access to the knowledge and guidance needed to respond to all health needs, including outbreaks. Nurses should be given financial support and other resources to respond to future outbreaks.

In almost all health care services, nurses perform roles that are not their specialty, so they have a minimal time left to perform their actual roles and responsibilities. They are spending more time than necessary doing non-nursing-related tasks, for example, billing, record keeping, inventory, laundry, diet, physiotherapy, patient abstinence, etc., thereby reducing time for patient care Happening.

If in any case, there is a flaw in these roles, nurses have to bear the brunt of it in the form of cancellation of leave, pay cut, etc. Little has been done in the health sector to door it.

Governments must invest in nursing education, jobs, and leadership. Some of these measures include the remuneration of nurses according to prevailing local, national and international labor market conditions.

The patient and the public have a right to the highest performance from healthcare professionals and this can only be achieved in a workplace that enables and sustains a motivated and well-prepared workforce. Nurses can be empowered, and motivated by meeting their needs and meeting their challenges.