The COVID-19 pandemic created a new challenge for the health workforce globally. In addition to providing quality essential health care despite health worker shortages, many countries now deal with the added responsibility of managing COVID restrictions and vaccine rollouts.
With those new challenges in mind, the WHO organised a series of conferences to encourage knowledge-sharing, dialogue and partnerships. The Health Workforce in COVID-19 Action Series: Time to Protect. Invest. Together consisted of three episodes, conducted between May to July 2021.
The third and last episode, which featured our SPCNMOA colleagues Harriet Sam and Michael Larui, focused on the link that aligns and strengthens our promises and actions: togetherness. The goal of this episode was to engage governments and all the relevant stakeholders in dialogue and to feature partnerships that successfully brought about change and improvements in health systems around the world.
Our colleague Michael Larui, National Director of Nursing Solomon Islands Nursing Board, spoke about the importance of sharing resources and collaborating with other countries to help the Pacific reach the WHO Sustainable Development Goals.
During this pandemic, the alliance improved and strengthened our partnerships, helping with sharing of resources given the challenges we have in the islands
– Michael Larui, National Director of Nursing, Solomon Islands
SPCNMOA Chair and Principal Nursing Officer Ministry of Health Vanuatu Harriet Sam gave a brief introduction of how the SPCNMOA and its partnership with WHO CC UTS came to be, and summarised the situation of nursing and midwifery in the Pacific. She mentioned how the individual characteristics of each country pay a complex picture of the health workforce in the Pacific. Many of the countries in the Pacific do not meet the recommended ratio of 4.45 nurses, doctors and midwives for 1,000 population.
Mostly, our hospitals are covered, but if you travel further into the remote and very remote areas, we have fewer nurses practising in health facilities
– Harriet Sam, Principal Nursing Officer, Vanuatu
Michael Larui also highlighted the importance of the SPCNMOA in facilitating collaboration across the Pacific, and the role of WHO CC UTS in providing support, educational resources and assisting in professional and leadership development.
We have a very strong secretariat which is the WHO CC UTS, and through their work and administrative support, the alliance has evolved in the past 12 years. – Michael Larui
Commenting on our colleagues’ words, Catherine Kane, a member of the Health Workforce team at WHO, underlined the role of the SPCNMOA:
You’ve brought together some fabulous threads with regards to the inclusion of health workers within leadership, particularly nurses, who comprise more than half of the global health workforce. It is very exciting to see how your leadership is bringing together efforts on educational initiative.