Nursing & midwifery overview
Nurses and midwives comprise the largest portion of the health workforce in most countries. They deliver core services at all levels of the health system and across the continuum of care to promote health, improve patient care, service delivery and health outcomes. Many countries continue to experience ongoing nursing and midwifery staff shortages, inequitable distribution of capabilities and skill-mix imbalances.
WHO supports Member States in their efforts to provide high quality and universally accessible health services by:
- supporting the development, implementation and evaluation of nursing and midwifery practice models to meet changing population health needs;
- providing technical guidance and facilitating actions to improve the quality and relevance of nursing and midwifery education;
- building the research capacities of nurses and midwives to contribute to the evidence-base for practice; and
- strengthening nursing and midwifery capacities to influence policy and regulatory development for the provision of high quality, safe care.