By Michelle Williams, Stephanie Ferguson
Around the world, we are finally starting to recognize that addressing some of the biggest health challenges we face today—from antimicrobial resistance and communicable diseases to climate change and health disparities—requires not just investing in, but also elevating the voices of, frontline workers who for too long have been overlooked, undertrained, and denied a seat at the policy table.
Nurses and midwives, for example, have enormous capacity to reach broad populations with preventive care, health education, family medicine, and treatments for both acute and chronic diseases. Yet, we are not investing in them as we must. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that countries educate six million more nurses to offset long-predicted shortages that threaten healthcare delivery worldwide. The pandemic has made the situation more dire. According to the International Council of Nurses, due to an anticipated avalanche of resignations and retirements, the world will need 13 million more nurses by 2030.
And we do not just need more nurses—we need more nurses in leadership positions. They have the insights, experience, and relationships to shape smart…
