KARACHI: Underscoring the need for urgent steps to increase the number of competent nurses as well as midwives in the country, speakers at a seminar held on Monday said that emigration of nurses from Pakistan was on the rise and over 1,000 nurses left for greener pastures over the past two years.

The event — Nurses: A voice to lead - Invest in Nursing and Respect Rights to Secure Global Health — was held in connection with International Nurses Day at Ziauddin University.

Speaking about the need for nurses, Dr Rozina Karmaliani, Dean, School of Nursing and Midwifery at the Aga Khan University, said the WHO expected that the world would require an additional nine million nurses and midwives by 2030.

“Take a look at the situation in Pakistan; it was already in short supply and urgently needed to develop a large number of high-quality nurses and midwives in Pakistan. The common misperception is that midwives are solely needed for maternity and newborn care.

Official says Islamabad has allocated Rs8.1bn for improvement of nursing, midwifery services

“The fact is 55 per cent of their care is required for maternal and neonatal health, 37pc for sexual and reproductive health and 8pc for adolescent reproductive health,” Dr Karmaliani explained.

The ideal nurse-to-doctor ratio, she pointed out, was 4.1. “In Pakistan, however, the ratio is two doctors per nurse-midwife and LHV combined. Our migration of quality nurses is on the rise. Over 1,000 nurses emigrated for better jobs in 2020-2021.”

Suggesting how improvement could be brought about in the healthcare system, Dr Amy Winslow, a certified nurse-midwife from the USA, stressed the need for developing an effective education system to ensure that well-trained nurses and midwives were available to meet future needs.

“There is a shortage of nurses and midwives in every city and province, not just in Pakistan but also globally,” she remarked.

Endorsing Dr Winslow’s views, Dr Khairunissa Ajani, Assistant Dean, School of Nursing & Midwifery at AKU, said education was the building block of any professional study. “If we as nurses don’t have a solid scientific knowledge base of what we’re doing and where we’re going, we won’t be able to stand up for ourselves, stand up for the patient, and make the impact we’re supposed to make, so we must ensure that we have the scientific knowledge about nursing”.

Ziauddin University Pro Chancellor Dr Nida Hussain shared ZU’s efforts for nursing promotion and said the university understood the need for promoting nurses’ rights to a safe workplace, as well as their full participation and decision-making in patient care and our administrative function.

Director General-Nursing Shabir Hussain Jhatial highlighted government efforts for nursing promotion and said the federal government had allocated Rs8.1 billion for the improvement of nursing and midwifery services.

“As far as the Sindh government is concerned, the standards of nursing and midwifery are being developed and improved. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the government hired a large number of nurses despite financial constraints,” she said.

Published in Dawn,May 24th, 2022