New legislation on nursing and midwifery will regulate the 2 professions and align Georgia’s laws to standards used in other European countries. Georgia has one of the lowest numbers of nurses in the WHO European Region and the shortage of nurses is even more acute in the country’s mountainous and hard-to-reach areas. One of the goals of the new legislation is to increase the attractiveness and recognition of nursing and midwifery.
The changes to the Law on Health Protection and Law on Higher Education, approved by the Parliament of Georgia this year, introduced nursing and midwifery as regulated professions, setting up professional standards, certification, continuous education, as well as relevant testing and examination programmes.
Nurses and midwives will be required to register and prove possession of a valid educational certificate. The government will create and maintain a register, monitoring their education, practice, and continuous professional education. All 23 000 nurses and midwives in the country are required to register by 1 January 2025.
Long-awaited recognition
While the average ratio of physicians to nurses in the Region is 2 to 3, in Georgia this number fell as low as 1 to 1 in 2022. Georgia does not produce enough graduate nurses to meet the demands of the population. In 2024, only 2 higher-education institutions offered nursing at the bachelor’s degree level, producing only a handful of graduates each year. In addition, a few hundred nurses are trained by professional education institutions. With the proposed changes, the government will update the existing curricula and set criteria for licensing these educational programmes.
Irma Kiladze, a primary health care nurse in Chakvi, a small village in west Georgia, salutes the initiative, “Ongoing professional education is essential for us to ensure we’re providing the best care for our patients. Proposed changes will guarantee every one of us has sufficient competencies and provide a long-awaited recognition for the representatives of this profession.”
The Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health, and Social Affairs of Georgia (MoIDPLHSA) will establish a supervisory body of nursing and midwifery activities to oversee the registration procedure, protect patient's rights, improve the quality of care, and define the penalties for misconduct.
The proposed legal and regulatory changes have been elaborated in collaboration with leading nursing and midwifery associations and members of the National Nursing Council, a consultative body supporting the MoIDPLHSA and comprised of representatives of the sectoral professional organizations, nurses’ and midwives’ educational institutions, medical institutions, and Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.
WHO supports nurses and midwives
The WHO/Europe nursing and midwifery team is working with the WHO Country Office in Georgia on a plan for WHO support. WHO will bring the best expertise and international practice in registration preparation, professional and educational standards development, and the design of continued educational arrangements for nurses and midwives.
“The new legislation represents one of the key steps taken to improve access to and quality of care in Georgia. It is also a crucial step towards enhancing the working conditions of nurses and midwives. Additionally, educational and professional standards will increase their rightful recognition and remuneration. This legislation will introduce regulatory oversight over these professions and increase patient safety. By establishing a register of nurses and midwives, the authorities will be able to adapt education, aligning changing patient needs with necessary professional skills,” explains Tomas Roubal, Advisor on Health Policy at the WHO Country Office in Georgia.
Investing in education, jobs, service delivery, and the leadership of nurses is supported by “Building better together: roadmap to guide implementation of the Global Strategic Directions on Nursing and Midwifery in the WHO European Region (2021–2025)”, in line with universal health coverage and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.