Studies on the nursing workforce in the americas

Abstract

This is a study of documents on the shortage of nurses, their uneven distribution and the poor conditions in which they carry out their work. Secondary sources were used, especially official data available in the human resources observatory of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the International Work Organization, the Information on Human Development of 2004 and 2006 and contributions of research in different countries. The subject is introduced showing the theoretical problems and the issues of the availability of reliable data for the study of the nursing workforce. It identifies some of the approaches used in these studies. It shows various categories that refer to the health workers and discusses those most widely employed: workforce and human resources. It emphasizes three dimensions in the context of the research questions: the dismantling of the state of well-being with the changes in the production system and services; the reorganization of the State and the feminization of health employment. Data about the nursing workforce in the Americas are presented, making comparing countries by the indicators: number of nurses per 10,000 inhabitants, the proportion of nurses to auxiliaries, the urban concentration of health workers contrasted to public health indicators such as deliveries by qualified health personnel and projections for the population older than 65 in 2015. The working conditions and professional migration are also described.