Vancouver -- Canada and other developed countries should not use their
"pseudo-shortages" of nurses as an excuse to pilfer health
professionals
from developing countries, the world's top nursing leader says.
"What worries us deeply is the way richer countries are recruiting in
poorer
countries, with no regard to the damage it will do," Kirsten Stallnecht,
president of the International Council of Nurses, said yesterday in an
interview.
"This brain drain is very, very dangerous for world health. It worsens the
gap between rich and poor, and it takes human resources from areas that need
them most," she told the convention of the Canadian Nurses Association in
Vancouver.
Ms. Stallnecht said the international shortage of nurses is severe. But in
developed countries such as Canada, it's a pseudo-shortage that can be
resolved by changing government policies.
"There is no shortage of qualified nurses in the developing world. The
problem is that a lot of nurses are choosing not to work in nursing because
the work conditions have made the job unpleasant," Ms. Stallnecht said.
"We are wasting a lot of talent and knowledge. There are a lot of idle
hands," she said. But the lack of human resource planning in the developed
world does not excuse undermining health systems in the developing world,
she said.
The ICN represents national nursing groups in 122 countries.
Ms. Stallnecht said political action is necessary because health-care reform
-- marked by deregulation, privatization and increased workload for nurses
-- is a devastating global phenomenon.