Abstract:Background: The Western Pacific Region (WPR) is home to nearly a third of the global nursing workforce. Regional disparities are apparent, threatening progress towards global health goals. Though nurses are recognized as essential players, there exists limited data on how nursing leadership is maximized to achieve these goals. Objectives: To describe nursing leaders’ perceptions on challenges and solutions in their countries, and the role of nursing leadership in addressing global health challenges. Materials and Methods: A 6-week online global health nursing leadership course was implemented with participants from WHO WPR countries. Participants answered a discussion forum to identify challenges, how they address these challenges, and how nursing leaders contribute to addressing global health challenges as part of the module synthesis. Thematic analysis was used on the text to identify themes. Results: Eighteen (18) nursing leaders across eleven countries in WPR contributed their answers. The following themes emerged as their challenges: workforce shortages and maldistribution; migration and retention; burnout, mental health, and workload; education and training constraints; gender and equity gaps; and policy and systems support. They identified the following to address nursing challenges: expanding and strengthening the nursing workforce; countries are investing in education reforms to align with international standards; enhancing leadership, policy engagement, and governance; improving well-being, working conditions, and gender equity; and aligning with the WHO Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (2021-2025). Lastly, participants identified how nursing leadership contributes to addressing global health challenges through: policy influence and system-level reform; innovative education and workforce development; research and evidence-based practice; community empowerment and people-centered care; and advocacy, visibility, and cultural transformation. Conclusions: Local and contextualized knowledge, experience, and expertise of nurse leaders in their respective countries and practice settings should be recognized to maximize the existing workforce’s ability to identify challenges and opportunities for achieving global health goals in the WPR.
Keywords: Global Health Workforce, nursing leadership, health workforce education, nursing workforce
