Poorest Hit Hardest By Nursing Shortage

20 March 2007

New Zealand is contributing to a healthcare crisis in developing countries by relying on the stretched global nursing and midwifery workforce to deliver health services to Kiwis.

In Islamabad this month a World Health Organisation meeting of nursing and midwifery leaders from around the world set out principles for strengthening the global nursing and midwifery workforces.* Of particular relevance to New Zealand is the principle that each country must put in place policies to ensure self-sufficiency in workforce production within the limits of its own resources.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation CEO, Geoff Annals, says that like many developed countries, New Zealand relies heavily on overseas trained nurses. “We are net users of this scarce resource. We must acknowledge that we live in a world where health problems are greatest precisely where health workers are most scarce,” Mr Annals says.

By subsidising our own healthcare system with foreign trained professionals, New Zealand draws on resources that ultimately flow out of struggling developing countries. As a good global citizen, New Zealand must do more to ensure that we supply as many healthcare professionals to the worldwide talent pool as we take from it.

“The industrial and professional work of NZNO to achieve fair pay and safe staffing is fundamental to New Zealand achieving self sufficiency in workforce production,” said Mr. Annals. “Nursing, midwifery and caregiving must be considered worthwhile and rewarding careers for young New Zealanders. This requires salaries that fairly recognise the skills, knowledge and responsibilities required to care for others and employers’ workplace policies that enable safe and effective professional practice.”

ENDS

Islamabad Declaration on Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery (PDF)