Nurses on the Front Line —Again

May 11, 2017If a new flu pandemic strikes, nurses are likely to be our first —and best—line of defense.Nurses constitute the largest proportion of the health workforce globally —by a large margin—and in many communities, they are the only health care providers available.In some places, nurses are also anaesthetists, or perform surgery, or head up entire clinics or hospitals, taking on these advanced roles to fill in the missing pieces of care in their communities. The boundaries of practice get pushed in response to need, often without formal recognition.  And yet there is a global shortage of these and other crucial health workers. TheWorld Health Organization projects a looming shortfall of some 18 million health workers by 2030.During the Spanish flu  pandemic of 1918-1919, good nursing care was the best predictor of a positive outcome.This is a big problem. Today new challenges face us globally. We all share vulnerability to infectious diseases, and we are all at risk. In 2016, air travel carried some3.7 billion passengers from place to place around the world. This is how quickly disease can spread among us, from country to country in just a few hours.And as the cover story in TIME magazine this month points out,the world is not prepared for the next pandemic.The latest of these significant risks is a pandemic of influenza —specifically a strain called H7N9, a bird flu that has made the leap from poultry to humans in China and has led 88% of humans infected t...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news