World Health Day: WHO chief calls for doubling the number of nurses in Pakistan

Islamabad: Hospitals are run by nurses, not by doctors, and unfortunately there is acute shortage of nurses and midwives in Pakistan, where density of nurses and midwives is 0.49 per 1,000 population, compared to the recommended threshold of 3.28 per 1,000 population. In order to achieve the target of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the country will have to double the number of nurses and midwives, with enhanced quality of professional education.

The WHO Representative in Pakistan Dr. Palitha Mahipala flagged the issue of shortage of nurses and midwives in Pakistan Tuesday in a message communicated in connection with World Health Day, which is commemorated on April 7 each year to celebrate the birthday of WHO.

The year 2020 has been declared as the ‘Year of the Nurse and the Midwives’as it marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.World Health Day this year is also dedicated to the same theme.

“Nurses and midwives have a crucial role to play in achieving UHC and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring that ‘no one is left behind.’ We want to highlight their commitment and the hard work they do to make our world healthier, safer and better,” Dr. Palitha states.

Dr. Palitha highlighted that WHO has launched the first-ever ‘State of the World’s Nursing' Report in 2020, prior to the 73rd World Health Assembly. The report will describe the nursing workforce in WHO Member States, providing an assessment of ‘fitness for purpose’ relative to GPW13 targets and achievement of UHC and SDGs.

He informed that the Ministry of National Health Services has ambitious plans for nursing and midwifery and WHO will support every step of this initiative through technical experts in the areas of enhancing health workforce production and retention; improving nursing education and leadership capacities, strengthening health workforce information system and health workforce observatory for nursing, and solidifying the regulation of health workforce practice and education.

Dr Palitha also visited Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on World Health Day and handed over scrub dresses to the Executive Director of PIMS and Chief Nursing Superintendent for Nurses and Midwives. He emphasized that WHO pays tribute to health workers being on the frontline in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a message on the occasion,the Regional Director of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, said that in this region, the history of nursing goes back to earlier days; there is a reference to Rufaida Al-Aslamia as the first female Muslim nurse and the first female surgeon in Islam.

That commitment is clearer than ever at the moment, as the world faces the devastating threat of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Health workers, including nurses and midwives, are working tirelessly day and night to care for patients and to save their lives. In fighting COVID-19, they are risking their own health and even their lives.

Not only might they become infected with the disease themselves, but they also face distress, fatigue and burnout because of the long hours they work, and some may also face stigma and violence. So it is more important than ever that we pay tribute to nurses, midwives and other health workers, and do everything we can to keep them safe and secure.