Modernising health and nursing workforces to prepare for future emergencies and disasters

Abstract

With a global health workforce shortage, particularly within nursing, it is evident that the world needs to focus on new strategies to present a more sustainable model. Given the world upheavals with climate change, wars, and disasters, there is also the need to be courageous and take on innovative ways to build health workforce capacity capable of responding to emergencies and disasters with an all-hazard approach. The focus here is on health workforce concepts regarding capacity and resilience centering on the nurse, preparedness for emergencies and disasters, and health education and training. This presents proposals to enhance health curriculums recognizing important aspects of working towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Additionally, the exploration of a new workforce framework, implementing supportive non-health staff roles based on a model introduced at a large Australian quarantine facility during the pandemic is presented. This health workforce exemplar demonstrates that when provided with supportive education and training, non-health professionals can have a positive impact, build workforce resilience, and be flexible collaborative valued team members during emergencies.

Keywords

• health workforce; emergencies; disasters