Training Community Based Nurses in Impoverished Areas of Developing Countries : A Practical Solution to a Rapidly Emerging Global Shortage of Health Workers Force

Abstract

The developing countries of the world face a chronic shortage of medical doctors, nurses and skilled health care workers. This is truer about women’s health care workers because many women do not prefer to be examined and managed by male health workers due to their religious, social and cultural reasons. Health workers are the heart and soul of health systems. A new progress report [1] estimates a global shortage of 7.2 million health workers, with 83 countries facing a health worker crisis. The relative shortages of doctors, nurses and midwives are still most acute in sub? Saharan Africa. This is currently one of the major obstacles to achieving the MDGs [2] and other international health goals including universal health coverage. The following graph depicts fertility and mortality in various regions of the world [3]. If we intend to change the dire situation in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Middle East & North Africa, and elsewhere, we have to enroll and train existing and new Nurses and other health care workers for primary and secondary health care.