A new WHO brief identifies the impact of government chief nursing and midwifery officers (GCNMOs) and senior nursing and midwifery leaders on national health workforce strategies and service delivery. GCNMOs are part of a network, the WHO/Europe GCNMO Hub, which aims to strengthen nursing capacity in the WHO European Region; the new brief was launched at the first in-person gathering of GCNMOs since the formation of the Hub a year ago.
The meeting in Tel Aviv brought together government chief nurses and other senior nursing officials from 17 of the 37 countries represented in the Hub for a high-level policy dialogue on the key areas of nursing development in the Region. These included primary health care, emergency response, nursing leadership and innovations in service delivery.
“It is clear that no single model of government chief nursing officer fits all of the countries in our region,” said Maggie Langins, Nursing and Midwifery Policy Adviser at WHO/Europe. “However, what is clear is that for these policy leaders to be effective in supporting over 60% of the health and care workforce to deliver on national health agendas, in a safe and regulated fashion, they need to be in place and supported by their governments in concrete ways. The technical brief offers clarity on what those are.”
About the WHO/Europe GCNMO Hub
Formed in September 2021, the WHO/Europe GCNMO Hub has the following objectives:
- to monitor, identify and support key emerging needs in the Region in order to strengthen GCNMOs as integrated members of ministries of health;
- to serve as a platform for exchange that can support GCNMOs in the Region through the sharing of experiences, strategies and solutions with each other and with nursing and midwifery experts and scientists from across the Region and around the world;
- to maximize learning from the COVID-19 pandemic and increase the capacity of GCNMOs in the Region to support their governments in building back better;
- to equip GCNMOs in the Region with key WHO resources and updates on the latest health policy strategies and approaches.
About the new brief
The newly launched document supports governments to strengthen GCNMOs in their countries by:
- identifying 5 models of GCNMOs in the Region that countries can choose from to fit their context;
- reviewing the functions of current GCNMOs in order to optimize their roles;
- recognizing the significant contributions of nurses and midwives during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which GCNMOs and senior leaders delivered reforms to expand nurses’ and midwives’ competencies;
- identifying the factors that help GCNMOs to work effectively;
- making the case to support the development of career structures and pathways in nursing and midwifery and to ensure equal opportunities for women and men to access leadership opportunities in nursing and midwifery.
Hosted by Dr Shoshy Goldberg, Chief Nursing Officer of the Ministry of Health of Israel, the event also saw the participation of Nitzan Horowitz, Minister of Health of Israel, and Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of Country Health Policies and Systems at WHO/Europe.
The meeting was complemented by a study tour to the Sheba Medical Centre, the largest medical centre in Israel and one of the largest in the world, to learn about innovative nursing practices in health-care delivery and management. The in-person meeting in Israel provided an opportunity for the Hub to not only take stock of the progress made over the past year, but also to advance the discussion on specific priority areas in nursing and midwifery and to contextualize these activities in the broader WHO European Programme of Work. Three more GCNMO Hub study tours are planned in the coming years to Ireland, Kazakhstan and Portugal.
This article was amended on 28 October 2022 to include "Government" in the title