Now is the right time “for empowerment, recognition, value and respect for nurses and midwives,” Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu recently told Nursing Times in an exclusive interview.
Tuipulotu is chief nursing officer of the World Health Organization, making her the top nurse in the world.
“We must care for them, the nurses and midwives. We must make sure they have decent pay and working conditions, we must enable them to work to the full extent of their scopes of practice, and we must have more nurses in senior health positions,” she added.
“These are key (parts) of the solutions for the issues that nurses are facing.”
In her interview with the online magazine, Tuipulotu said a key problem for nurses around the world is the “historical undervaluing of the profession” through poor pay and other factors.
“For me this is the right time that we must come together to change that,” she said.
“If the profession feels (it is) undervalued (and) disrespected — historically and after the pandemic — how will that impact the nurses themselves, their confidence and the way they value their work?” she asked. “We really have to see the whole picture, the ripple impact of decisions we make.”
Tuipulotu, who is in her seventh month as chief nursing officer, wants the world’s governments “to listen to the nurses’ and midwives’ voices and perspectives.” After all, she said, these health care workers are the ones on the front lines every day.
“Leaders must come to fully understand (the conditions in which nurses are working) … and the impact of the decisions for fair pay and fair working conditions for nurses and midwives,” she added.
Another factor facing nurses, Tuipulotu said, is relying on other countries to provide enough workers to fill the shortages many nations face.
WHO has created a red list of 55 countries with the worst shortages, meaning other countries should not recruit workers from them. Preventing that is difficult, however, she said.
“Of course, there are the issues with regards to health care professionals and nurses, (and) their own rights to be able to migrate,” she said. “So, we must all come together and see the picture very clearly, as we will be called to be accountable into the future.”
Tuipulotu suggested countries that benefit from international recruitment invest back in the areas where those recruits are from, “to support them to maintain their domestic workforce.”
Before joining WHO, Tuipulotu was the first female health minister of her native Tonga.
“I had been working for one country and now (I am) having to work for 194 member states, and the billions(-strong) population of the world,” she said in the interview.
Those 194 member states “have the power in our hands together — nurses, midwives, associations, member states, (ministries of health) and governments — to change the future for tomorrow, for the profession (and) for universal health coverage for the population to ensure safe and quality care. That’s why we have to do it,” she concluded.
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