With the publication of “Working Together for Health: The World Health Report 2006”, the World Health Organization made the global health professional shortage an institutional priority (Chen et al., 2006). More than 10 years later, the health workforce remains a pressing issue and has been prioritized in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN General Assembly, 2015). Several issues affect the workforce shortage: migration, ethical recruitment, increasing both production and retention, as well as turnover. Given that nurses comprise the majority of health professionals (World Health Organization, 2017), effectively addressing the nursing shortage will go a long way toward tackling the overall health workforce shortage and making progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Network” is extensively used in health care to explain relationships within the sector and with outside organizations; its use is often synonymous with words, such as partnership, collaboration, alliance, and group (Cunningham et al., 2012). The United Nations Development Fund defines capacity as the “ability of individuals, institutions, and societies to perform functions, solve problems, and set and achieve objectives in a sustainable manner” (2010, p. 2). Networking among nurses and other health professionals has been linked to improvements in patient care through shared knowledge and improved communication (Khanum et al., 2016). Likewise, professional networks might be one strategy for building capacity among nurses and other health professionals, as they can help promote the sustainable sharing of knowledge and the development of skills.
Leading a diverse group requires sensitive and inclusive leadership, as well as an appreciation of the needs and concerns of stakeholders. In this Editorial, we describe the formation and the critical success factors for establishing a multi‐national health/leadership network, namely the Southeast and East Asian Nursing Education and Research Network (SEANERN). We also try to illustrate how a regional academic nursing network can affect change locally while contributing to priority global health issues.
Full article please see >>> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nhs.12592