Nurses and midwives comprise 50% of the total global healthcare workforce and, by 2030, an estimated 9 million nurses and midwives will be needed to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all at all ages.1 Of all healthcare practitioner types, nurses spend the most time in direct care and are vital to health promotion, disease prevention, and delivering primary and community care. Nurses share a common purpose and direction: to provide the highest quality of healthcare using available resources and to improve patients' lives in as many aspects as possible.
Strengthening nursing worldwide
In 2011, the WHO World Health Assembly passed a resolution calling on members to strengthen nursing by including them in developing human resources for health policies. In 2016, the Global Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery 2016-2020 was published, which provided a framework to guide stakeholders as they "develop, implement, and evaluate nursing and midwifery accomplishments to ensure accessible, quality, and safe nursing and midwifery interventions."2
In 2018, the WHO joined the Nursing Now campaign as a collaborating partner with the International Council of Nurses (ICN). This 3-year campaign aims "to improve health globally by raising the profile and status of nurses worldwide-and influencing policymakers and supporting nurses themselves to lead, learn, and build a global movement."3,4 Nursing is considered a lower-level profession in many countries, with nurses receiving little acknowledgment and no authority or power. With directives from the WHO and other international stakeholders, there is tremendous opportunity to change nursing perceptions, privileges, and practice.
Global Perspectives
Advanced nursing practice (ANP) is part of the wave to expand nursing roles through the development of educational programs all over the world, many of which will graduate NPs or roles similar to that of the NP role in the US. The Nurse Practitioner is launching a new department called Global Perspectives in this issue to bring information about ANP around the world. Readers can look forward to global perspectives from US faculty engaged in collaboration and/or consulting, foreign faculty who lead developments of ANP in their countries, educators and students from around the world, practicing advanced practice registered nurses in other countries, and foreign policy makers. Descriptions of differing RN and ANP roles, processes in developing academic partnerships, outcomes of NP care globally, emerging global health issues, and challenges and strategies to overcome them will be among the invited topics.
Dr. Louise Kaplan, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, consultant to Eswatini, has written the first installment of this department, highlighting the 2018 ICN Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nurse Network conference held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The editorial staff is interested in hearing what you want to read in this new column. For 2019, become involved in advancing nursing worldwide. Visit the websites noted in the references to find out how you can contribute to the effort.
Jamesetta A. Newland, PhD, FNP-BC, FAANP, DPNAP, FAAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF [email protected]
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