Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health system management, and education are also key health care roles.
FACTORS THAT SHAPE AND DIRECT THE NATURE OF HEALTH CARE PROVISION
Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals today is at the heart of healthcare provision in Pakistan, and nurses are the largest group of clinical employees followed by allied health care professionals. Many factors, from political to economic, from social to technological, shape and direct the nature of healthcare provision and so also affect care and the context in which it takes place. These factors are continually changing and evolving and therefore affecting the quality of care for patients.
PREFACE AND CONTEXT
MINAS proposes to create the first University that focuses mainly on Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Sciences located at GUJRAT, Pakistan. The establishment of MINAS will enable us to become a major force in local and regional health care and sustainable excellence in nursing, midwifery and allied health education, research, and service for the people of Pakistan and beyond. We expect MINAS to become a lead player in nursing vibrant research community and enhance its intellectual, professional, public service, and global missions with an intention to increase its impact and influence in the region.
Health Care System in Pakistan
Health systems are expected to serve the population needs in an effective, efficient and equitable manner. The factors determining the health behaviors may be seen in various contexts physical, socioeconomic, cultural and political. Therefore, the utilization of a health care system, public or private, formal or non-formal, may depend on socio-demographic factors, social structures, level of education, cultural beliefs and practices, gender discrimination, status of women, economic and political systems environmental conditions, and the disease pattern and health care system itself. Policy makers need to understand the drivers of health seeking behavior of the population in an increasingly pluralistic health care system. More concerted effort is required for designing behavioral health promotion campaigns through inter-sectoral collaboration focusing more on disadvantaged segments of the population. The paper reviews the health care providers, the national policies emphasizing health services as well as health care systems in Pakistan and the role of the pharmacist in health care system of Pakistan, health and economics of Pakistan and current budgeting policies and the importance of non-government organizations in health care system of Pakistan.
The Nursing Shortage
This proposal is especially timely given this nation’s and the regions – severe nursing shortage. Major contributors to the current nursing shortage across the nation include insufficient resources to accept growing numbers of qualified applicants to nursing programs and the corresponding shortage of qualified nurse faculty. Moreover, a wave of faculty retirements is expected across the country as faculty age continues to climb (AACN, 2009a). Also affecting the shortage are the increasing number of older Pakistanis with complex medical and nursing needs and an aging nursing workforce. Pakistan Nursing Council estimates that the current nurse population ratio is 1:3568 and the midwife population ratio is 1:54276 in the country that is behind the international standard required.
There is need to train 09 lac Nurses, 09 lac midwifes and 09 million Allied Health Sciences Professionals (AHSP) by the year 2030 which the public sector alone cannot meet, hence private sector has to come forward to achieve the goals and objectives in the country. Although, the current economic recession has alleviated the severe nursing shortage in the country, experts believe that this occurrence due to high number of retiring lnursing leaders, lack of quality trained /qualified faculty in school of nursing and nurses’ reputation in the country that has impacted the need to meet the hospital requirement.
Moreover, in National scenario according to see CPEC a corridor from Gawadar to Kahsghar 24 new hospitals and Trauma Centers are being constructed and they will be completed by the year 2022. These Trauma Centre needs thousands of nurses and AHSP to work.
The Future of Nursing
On October 5, full 2010, the University of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies issued a consensus report from a 2-year initiative to chart the future of nursing. The report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (IOM, 2010), delineates critical strategies for meeting America’s health care needs over the next 25 years. Emphasis is placed on the need for collaboration among nurses, government, businesses, health care organizations, professional associations, and the insurance industry to ensure that the health care system provides consumers with seamless, affordable, quality, accessible care that leads to improved health outcomes. The report acknowledges that the nursing profession, with more than 3 million members, is the largest segment of the nation’s health care workforce. Also acknowledged is the fact that nurses work on the front lines of patient care. Hence, nurses are vital to the realization of the objectives of the ACA. Nevertheless, several barriers must be overcome to ensure that nurses are well positioned to lead change and advance health.