Nursing and midwifery - World Health Organization (WHO)
Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. It includes the promotion of health, the prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Nurses play a critical role in health care and are often the unsung heroes in health care facilities and emergency response. They are ...

Nursing and midwifery - World Health Organization (WHO)
WHO’s work relating to nursing and midwifery is currently directed by World Health Assembly resolution WHA74.15 (2021) which calls on WHO Member States and WHO to strengthen nursing and midwifery through the Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (SDNM) 2021–2025. The SDNM is an interrelated set of policy priorities that can help countries to ensure that midwives and nurses ...

State of the world's nursing report 2025
The 2025 edition of the State of the world’s nursing provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the nursing workforce. The report features new indicators on critical areas for nursing, such as education capacity, advanced practice nursing and remuneration.

Nursing workforce grows, but inequities threaten global health goals
The global nursing workforce has grown from 27.9 million in 2018 to 29.8 million in 2023, but wide disparities in the availability of nurses remain across regions and countries, according to the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Council of Nurses (ICN) and partners.

State of the world's nursing 2020: investing in education, jobs and ...
The State of the world’s nursing 2020 report provides the latest, most up-to-date (as of 2020) evidence on and policy options for the global nursing workforce.

Countries advance “Nursing Action” initiative to tackle nurse shortages ...
The retention of nurses in Member States of the WHO European Region is central to “Nursing Action”, a landmark European Union (EU)-funded initiative aimed at strengthening the nursing workforce across the EU and Norway and ultimately improving people’s health.

State of the world’s nursing 2025 - World Health Organization (WHO)
State of the world’s nursing 2025 provides updated data and evidence on the global nursing workforce. The level of data reflects a 33% increase in the number of countries reporting on a core set of indicators as compared with State of the world’s nursing 2020. The improved data allows greater precision in describing the challenges to nursing education, employment, service delivery and ...

Webinar - State of the World's Nursing 2025 (SoWN 2025) report
WHO is currently developing the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 (SoWN 2025) report, which will be launched on 12 May 2025. This report will offer an updated, comprehensive analysis of the nursing workforce at national, regional, and global levels. This report is built on the SoWN 2020 report that provided critical insights and informed policy decisions on optimizing nurses’ roles and ...