Figure 3. Background, scope, potential and challenges for the work of health professionals and recommendations of Triple Impact: how developing nursing will improve health, promote gender equality and support economic growth.
| Triple Impact: how developing nursing will improve health, promote gender equality and support economic growth |
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| Report organized by the All-Party Parliamentary Group
on Global Health in the United Kingdom. Its starting point was the
goal countries signed in 2015, assuming the commitment to guarantee
universal health access/coverage, adopting the view that “nobody
should be left behind”. This report argues that universal health coverage cannot be achieved without strengthening Nursing; it highlights the need to increase the number, as well as the understanding that its contribution is understood, so as to enable nurses to work at their full potential. In that perspective, the report argues that the strengthening of Nursing will have a triple impact: improving health, promoting gender equality and supporting economic growth. |
| Nurses play different roles, in varying circumstances and contexts, through a unique combination of people-centered competencies and humanitarian values; they provide and manage care, work with families and communities and play a central role in public health, disease and infection control. In diverse contexts, nurses are the primary or sole professionals people see in health care. Part of the community, they share its culture and are alert to social, individual and programmatic vulnerabilities. |
| Nurses are the largest part of the professional health
workforce. Achieving the goal of universal health coverage/access
globally depends on these professionals’ comprehensive
action. There is important innovation and creativity in nursing care, with great potential not yet used that will ensure that citizens have better access to health care. The increase in the number of nurses and the use of Nursing’s full potential will result in a triple impact of improving health, gender equality and economic growth. |
| In many contexts, Nursing remains undervalued and its contribution underestimated. These professionals still face problems in the team, poor infrastructure and inappropriate education and training. All of these factors can result in care of inferior quality; in this context, they are frequently unable to fully practice their skills and share their knowledge. They also get few opportunities to develop their leadership, hold leading functions and influence policy making. |
| 1. Strengthen Nursing and make it central to health
policies. A high-level global summit on Nursing should be convened,
consisting of political and health leaders outside Nursing, to raise
awareness of the opportunities and potential of Nursing, create
political commitment and a establish a process for supporting
development. This should be part of a long-term initiative that
embraces all other recommendations. 2. Support plans to increase the number of nurses being trained and employed globally. The WHO Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health, Workforce 2030, adopted by member states in 2016, proposes a framework for making the most effective use of health workers, as well as investment plans to address their shortage. A) Develop plans in partnership with low and middle-income countries to support their health workforce; B) Reaffirm support for the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, offering support for the training and employment of health professionals in their countries of origin; C) Assess the impact of health professionals’ leaving the European Union on health and the health system and take mitigation actions. 3. Develop nurse leaders and Nursing leadership. They are needed in the right places to ensure that the distinctive Nursing perspective is included in health policy-making and decision-making. A) Establish a global program to develop nurse leaders who are truly engaged in policy-making and decision-making. B) Ensure that countries have nurse leadership posts throughout their structures and organizations. 4. Enable nurses to work to their full potential. Cultural, regulatory and legislative barriers need to be identified and removed so that good practices are shared and applied. 5. Collect and disseminate evidence of the impact of Nursing on health access, quality and costs, aiming to ensure that it is incorporated in policies. It is important to undertake new assessments to demonstrate the impact of Nursing at scale. A) Develop research to join evidence and start new research on how and when the improvement of Nursing care contributes to universal health access. B) Ensure that existing and future research results are widely disseminated and understood in order to influence practice and policies. 6. Develop Nursing to have a triple impact on health, gender equality and economies. Investment in Nursing – the vast majority of whom are women – will help empower them economically and as community leaders, strengthening local economies. A) Adapt development policies to implement programs that simultaneously address SDG 3, 5 and 8, focusing on health, gender equality and inclusive and sustainable economic growth. 7. Promote partnerships and mutual learning between the United Kingdom and other countries. A) Expand the DFID Health Partnership Scheme, including more nurses. |