To Succeed, Global Pandemic Response Must Bolster Nurse Leadership and Challenge Widespread Gender Inequities

By Vince Blaser, Former senior advocacy& policy advisor, IntraHealth International, and director, Frontline Health Workers CoalitionJuly 06, 2020There are massive gender inequities in nursing leadership around the world and the gains made in the past are at risk of being rolled back by COVID-19 pandemic.This is what Mary Nandili, director of nursing services at the Kenya Ministry of Health, told hundreds of participants last month ina virtual event led by IntraHealth International, Nursing Now, and Johnson& Johnson. “In terms of leadership, males are still predominant,” Nandili said.“Over 60% of the nursing profession [in Kenya] is dominated by women, yet women are not well-represented in decision-making levels. Female nurses, on the other hand, double their effort with domestic matters, yet men contain their concentration at work.”Nandili also said that nurses as a whole are being discriminated against by their neighbors because of having contact with COVID patients.“The risk of nurses contracting infection is high, as they are with patients for longer hours,” she said.Urgent action is needed to address stigma, leadership, and gender inequalities of nurses for the pandemic response to be successful and to prevent a backslide in global health progress, she said.Indeed, the first-everState of the World’s Nursing Reportreleased in April 2020, backed by evidence such as that in the 2019 reportInvesting in the Power of Nurs...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Nurses Source Type: news