The International Council of Nurses (ICN) says the alarming rise in the number of nurses taking strike action across the world is a direct response to governments’ failure to tackle the root causes of our fragile, severely weakened, and in some cases collapsing healthcare systems. Across the globe, ICN has identified numerous examples of nurses engaged in industrial action over a range of basic issues including safety, security, and protection, all of which jeopardize both healthcare staff and patients.
One of the fundamental root causes is the global shortage of nurses, which is putting unsustainable pressure on the nurses currently working in healthcare systems that have been disrupted by staff shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic, and historical chronic underfunding. These pre-existing shortages have led to a worrying increase in industrial disputes and strikes – for example, a report from Cornell University’s ILR Worker Institute shows that half of all strikes in the United States in 2021 were of workers in healthcare settings, and this Saturday 18 June nurses in Spain will hold a nationwide demonstration. Among other examples, ICN has pinpointed nurse actions in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
“ICN believes that the current greatest threat to global health is workforce shortages.”
ICN President Pamela Cipriano said: “Industrial action by nurses is always a last resort, but it is not surprising it is happening, given the state of the health systems nurses are having to work in, which do not enable them to deliver the high-quality care they expect to. This is because of the pressures they are working under, the lack of value and recognition they receive, historic inequities related to gender, and poor pay and working conditions.
‘These past two years have taught the world just how important nursing care is to our health and our social and economic wellbeing, but the lessons learned are not been heeded by the people with the power to make a difference to the state of their health systems, the quality of patient care and the lives of nurses everywhere.”
Ahead of a meeting with the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, at the Palais Nations in Geneva, ICN Chief Executive Officer Howard Catton said:
“ICN is calling out governments for not tackling the roots of the unrest in our healthcare systems which are fragile, severely weakened and in some cases bordering on collapse. Instead of papering over the cracks, they must address the fundamental issues of inequality and gross underfunding which have led to lack of fair pay, shortages and increased risks to patient safety.”
In his statement to Mr. Shahid, Mr. Catton said:
“ICN believes that the current greatest threat to global health is workforce shortages. With a global shortage of six million nurses and 18 million healthcare workers before the pandemic, we are now seeing increased turnover and quit rates which are highly likely to increase these numbers. This matters because there is no healthcare without a healthcare workforce.
‘The pandemic powerfully demonstrated that our health and our economic welfare are inextricably linked. Spending on healthcare is not a cost, but a cast-iron investment that brings huge returns. If we do not make the investments to grow and strengthen our global health workforce, we will continue to struggle economically, and access to high-quality healthcare for all will remain nothing but a pipe dream.”
