National policy-making to develop nursing towards people’s health✩

Nurses play a vital role on the front lines of health care and make outstanding contributions to people’s health all over the world.In China, people’s health has been remarkably improved in recent 100 years.By 2020,the average life expectancy has been increased to 77.8 years.The maternal mortality and infant mortality have decreased to 16.9 per 100,000 and 5.4 per 1,000.These leading indicators rank at the forefront of developing countries, and nurses make a great effort.The COVID-19 pandemic also illustrated that nurses are providing care for critically ill and isolated COVID-19 patients at the risk of infection and losing their own lives.

People’s health is an essential target of China’s social development.Therefore, China government has been putting more emphasis on promoting nursing profession.

Firstly, nurses are highly recognized and valued by the government.TheNursing Regulationsissued by the State Council defined the nurses’duties in Chapter 1:protecting life,alleviating suffering and promoting health, which is consistent with theICN Code of Ethics for Nurses.The year 2020 is the International Year of Nurse and Midwife.WHO launched theState of the World’s Nursing 2020Report, whose main objective is to support the political dialogue needed for investment at the national and regional level of the nursing workforce.On April 7, the World Health Day, China National Health Commission published the progress of the nursing professional training, practice and expanding their roles toward improving people’s health.

In China,an old saying is, “Thirty percent is medical treatment,and seventy percent is nursing care,” indicating that care is more important than cure.Nursing serves the whole process of life,from birth to death, facing aging and illness.Nursing services are direct, continuous and immediate.In the spring of 2020, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, we dispatched 42.6 thousand medical staff to support the patients’ treatment and care in Hubei, and 70%, or 28.6 thousand, are nurses.Nurses have made outstanding contributions to the treatment of patients.

For more than one year, nurses have been key figures in combating COVID-19.They perform on the front lines, caring for isolated patients, rescuing and caring for critically ill patients,giving psychological support to patients,and providing rehabilitation and health guidance to patients and their families.In addition,nurses had administered over 2.22 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in China as of October 12,2021.

Secondly,China government carried out a series of national policies in nursing development.At the national level,the State Council promulgated theNursing Regulationin 2008, which prescribed the nurses’ qualification and practice registration, the rights and obligations, the responsibilities of medical and health institutions to ensure the training, salary and occupational protection for nurses.In order to enhance nursing development, since 2006,China’s nursing development plan has been formulated and updated every five years by the National Health Commission.We have completed three 5-year plans for Nursing.The plans clarify nursing development goals, priorities and requirements, and the Chinese Nursing Association,nursing colleges and the health institutions worked together to achieve the goals.

We have achieved remarkable progress in nursing resources,including rapid growth in the nursing workforce and improvement of nurses’ abilities.By the end of 2020, China had 4.71 million nurses working in hospitals, community health centers, nursing homes and other health facilities, covering rural and urban areas.More than 70% of nurses have an associate degree in nursing or above.

In 2016, the State Council issued the Healthy China 2030 planning outline, which recognized the essential works delivered by nurses.The Healthy China planning outline includes five perspectives:Promote healthy lifestyles,Optimize health services,Improve health protection,Build a healthy environment,and Develop health industries.Nursing is integrated into the development plan to contribute to healthy China.We have a new plan for nursing development including fifteen main actions.Nursing development in China should be oriented to the Healthy China 2030 plan, adapted to the health requirement of all of people, adapted to the needs of medical and health care reform and development, and adapted to medical technology advancement and clinical service development.

In the future, government-oriented nursing development in China will focus on four directions.1)Strength Nursing Workforce:Increase the number of nurses, invest more in nurse training to improve their abilities, and improve the incentive mechanism.2)Develop Quality Nursing: Promote reform and innovation in nursing, not only in nursing practice but also in nursing management, promote the development of nursing service industries,and promote patient-centered healthcare delivery systems.3)Satisfy People’s Needs of Public Care:Develop elderly care,community care,home care,hospice care to meet aging populations’health needs and promote the establishment and development of the caregiver industries.4)Publicize Nursing Profession:Promote positive energy of nursing,setting nursing role models,create a healthy working environment for nurses.In this year,three Chinese nurses were awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal for their outstanding contributions to healthcare.Wang Qishan, Chinese vice president and honorary president of the Red Cross Society of China,presented the medals at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

We believe, in the future, nursing will play essential roles inpeoples’ health and social development.Being the policymakers,we should provide more support and investment to nursing development.