Worsening Global Health Workforce Shortage: What’s Being Done?
Frances Day-Stirk, president, International Confederation of Midwives, and David Benton, CEO of International Council of Nurses. Photo courtesy of Marilyn DeLuca.
By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief
While it might seem—based on what we see in our own country—that there is no shortage of health care workers, there is indeed a global shortage and it’s only going to get worse. We reported on the global health workforce last year; new reports are revealing just how much worse things may get. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2035 there will be a shortage of 12.9 million health care workers; currently, there is a shortage of 7.2 million.*
The shortage is being exacerbated by a confluence of occurrences:
- the aging population is living longer and with more […]