New International Council of Nurses report focuses on nurses’ crucial role in creating prosperity for all.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) released an important new report on International Nurses Day. The report brings together evidence from economists and other renowned experts from across the world to demonstrate the contribution nurses and nursing can make to global economic growth with an adequate level of investment. Findings highlight that poor health costs the global economy 15% of gross domestic product (GDP), and the authors link poor health and inadequate healthcare with lack of economic prosperity.

“Our report focuses on the economic benefits of having more nurses for the whole global economy,” said American Nurse Journal Editor-in-Chief Emeritus and ICN President Pamela Cipriano, DNP, RN, CPPS, FNAP, FAAN. “We know that healthier people are more engaged and more economically productive, but millions of people lack access to the essential healthcare that they need, most of which is delivered by registered nurses. Effective universal health coverage (UHC) could save 60 million lives and add 3.7 years to average life expectancy by 2030, but achieving it requires a massive increase of investment in the nursing workforce. Nurses are the drivers of primary health care, which has been recognized by the United Nations as the catalyst for reaching the UHC2030 goals.”

Based on the data in this report, to reach just 80% of the optimal nursing coverage ratio, we would need an additional 30.6 million nurses in the global workforce.

ICN Chief Executive Officer Howard Catton has been hearing from nurse leaders from around the world who say that instead of investing in the nursing workforce, governments are looking for short-term fixes. “Faced with the global shortage of nurses instead of investing in the current nursing workforce, we are seeing too many governments choosing short-term and cost reduction driven policies, such as international recruitment, creating new non-registered nurse roles and looking to reduce the length of nurse education,” said Catton during a visit to the Danish Nurses Association. “These are the wrong choices, taking us in the wrong direction, and seriously risk putting people off joining the profession and seeing more of our experienced nurses quit or leave earlier than they would have done.”

In its work with international organizations, such as the World Economic Forum, ICN has seen growing recognition that investment in nursing acts an accelerator not a brake on economic growth. I wholeheartedly agree. This new report provides strong evidence and actionable ideas to make the business case for greater investment in nursing. The true costs of ill health and poor care are well documented. For example, the cost of treating harm caused during care is around 13% of total health spending.

We know the transformative power of nursing and the vital role of nurses in every setting. I hope that nurses everywhere will read the report and turn ideas into action, setting the stage for investing in nursing to meet local, national, and global priorities. I commend ICN and all of the talented nurses, economists, and others who produced this groundbreaking work.

Lillee Gelinas, DNP, RN, CPPS, FAAN

Editor-in-Chief

Reference

International Council of Nurses. International Nurses Day 2024: The economic power of care. 2024. bit.ly/3KCKoPJ

American Nurse Journal. 2024; 19(7). Doi: 10.51256/ANJ072404