Nursing the World to Health

18 million

Eighteen million more health care professionals are needed worldwide to achieve and maintain comprehensive health care by 2030. Around half this number – nine mil-lion – currently work in nursing and midwifery. To highlight the huge importance of their work, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

70%

Around 70 per cent of all people working in health and social services are women. The majority of them are nurses and midwives. The shortage of skilled professionals in this sector is most pronounced in South-East Asia and Africa.

80%

More than 80 per cent of maternal mortality, stillbirths and infant mortality in the first month could be prevented by deploying well-trained midwives and birthing nurses. To mark the 200th birthday of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale, International Nurses Day is being celebrated on 12 May 2020 with global campaigns under the heading ‘Nursing the World to Health’.

Source for all figures: www.who.int

All pictures shown above were taken from our report "Healthy Future", issue 4/2018.