Overview

Nursing comprises independent and collaborative care of everyone - sick or healthy and in all contexts. It includes promoting health, preventing illness, and caring for the ill, disabled and dying people. Nurses play a crucial role in healthcare and are often unacknowledged in the health departments and emergency response. Nurses are the first to identify health emergencies usually and serve on the front lines of disease prevention and primary health care offering, including advancement, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Nurses have a vital role in organizing and applying health actions, both at the front-line and managerial levels. They are often the first and sometimes only health professionals a patient will see, and the quality of their initial assessment and subsequent care is vital to strengthen health outcomes. 

Impact

Despite their critical role in health care, there is a shortage of nurses with the growing population. Initiatives to expand health care services furthers the need for trained nurses. India needs a competent, motivated, well-distributed and supported health workforce as part of the drive for national health coverage, and nurses are necessary to these efforts.

Developing and strengthening human resources for health means recognizing that nursing services play a vital role in improving health service delivery as nurses form the bulk of the clinical health force. A significant share of the female workforce is in nursing. Accomplishing the goal of health care for all will need enormous efforts to overcome the shortage of health workers.

PGC Response

PGC recognizes the vital role nurses play in primary health care delivery, demonstrating the importance of nursing services to achieve better health for all communities.

PGC endeavours to promote the role of nurses in health care delivery and expand the health workforce. PGC also supports technical efforts for capacity building in policy-making, programmes and works to forge networks and effective partnerships to help meet healthcare workers needs. 

Fact sheet:

Facts: 70% of the health and social workforce across the globe is women. 

PGC Resolution: To transform and scale up health professionals education and training to strengthen nursing and midwifery in support of strategies for health for all.