Technical activities
Nursing
As regards the quality and safety of nursing care, the Nursing and Midwifery Group within WHO is currently focusing on the impact of staffing conditions on the quality and safety of patient care. The report of the Secretariat submitted to the Fifty-sixth World Health Assembly identified the negative impact of changing staffing conditions as a primary and growing concern among Member States. Since the human resources crisis – and particularly the shortage of nursing and midwifery personnel – is expected to deepen in the coming years, guidance on how to ensure quality and safety of care in resource-limited settings becomes vital. The Nursing and Midwifery Group has therefore recently been engaged in preparing a briefing document based on studies that have established a link between inadequate staffing conditions and patient status or outcome. The briefing document is intended to show how the organization of care, the various approaches to using the skill mix of staff, and the organizational climate all contribute to patient and provider outcomes.
Regional offices are equally active in moving the patient safety agenda forward. The Eastern Mediterranean Region has recently developed guidelines for the regulation of nursing and midwifery practice, the essential components of which refer to ensuring that outcomes of nursing and midwifery care are of high quality and that practices are safe. The region has also launched a comprehensive and standardized assessment of the quality of nursing services across its Member States.
In order to ensure the safety of care procedures, both the South-East Asia Region and the European Region have recently published training manuals and guidelines on infection control. These efforts are part of a worldwide initiative to strengthen nursing and midwifery services and will be complemented by further activities.