Dr. Redman Discusses the Role of Nurses in Global Healthcare Delivery

As part of the Fall 2010 Research Discussion Series hosted by the Center for Global Health, the U-M School of Nursing’s Dr. Richard Redman (Professor and Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs) gave a presentation discussing his work in the context of global health equity. According to Dr. Redman, one of his goals in the presentation was to empirically demonstrate the critical role that nurses play in health systems and how there is growing evidence suggesting that their workplace conditions directly correlate to the quality of care patients receive. In other words, through ample statistics, Dr. Redman explained that there are several factors relating to the nursing staff in a healthcare facility that can reliably predict improved patient outcomes. For example, in facilities where nurses have higher levels of educational preparation, where they are given more responsibility in delivering patient care, and where there are larger numbers of them, patients have significantly reduced risk of death by medical complications. 

But this was only one of the goals of Dr. Redman’s presentation. The other was to posit key areas for improving health systems. These were outlined as follows:

• Minimum education standards – a level of education required for all nursing professionals working in any part of the world
• Access to continuing education – ability to pursue ongoing training and education throughout nursing career
• Standardized data repository for nursing statistics – establishment of a centralized, global database of information pertaining to the nursing profession
• Advanced practice roles – increasing the range of healthcare services that nurses can provide to patients
• Combating growing global shortages – finding ways to increase the number of trained nurses all over the world
• Decreasing migration issues – working to help countries retain the nursing professionals that they educate
• Improved salary and working conditions – effort to increase job satisfaction, thereby retaining more professionals and recruiting more students
• Creating research infrastructures – ensuring that all nursing professionals have an opportunity to innovate new solutions through research according to their expertise