WHO designates 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

The World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO), designated 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. The designation honors the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.

This year WHO is leading the development of the first-ever State of the World’s Nursing report, which will be launched prior to the 73rd World Health Assembly. The report will describe the nursing workforce in WHO Member States.

WHO is also a partner on The State of the World’s Midwifery 2020 report, which will also be launched around the same time. The NursingNow! Campaign, a three-year effort (2018-2020) to improve health globally by raising the status of nursing, will culminate in 2020 by supporting country-level dissemination and policy dialogue around the State of the World’s Nursing report.

Nurses and midwives are essential to the achievement for universal health coverage, a goal of WHO, given that nurses and midwives constitute more than 50% of the health workforce in many countries. The world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.