Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2009, publiée 99ème session CIT (2010)

Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 3, of the Convention. National policy on nursing services and nursing personnel. The Committee notes the Government’s explanations concerning the aims and implementation of the Target and Action Plan for Social Welfare and Health Care 2000–03 and the Development Project for Social Services 2003–07. It also notes that the National Development Programme for Social Services and Health Care, which started in 2008, is expected to continue the development work while the Health 2015 programme has identified eight targets for public health emphasizing, among others, the need to take health promotion into account in the training of all health professionals. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide in its next report up to date information on the application of the new programmes and also describe how these programmes are expected to impact on the quality of nursing services and the employment and working conditions of nursing staff. To the extent that the above general health programmes determine or directly affect the national policy for nursing services and nursing personnel, the Committee would appreciate if the Government would specify whether and how the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned have participated in the formulation of these programmes, as prescribed by this Article of the Convention.

Article 3. Nursing education and training. The Committee notes the Government’s indications about the projected labour needs and openings in the field of health and social services. It notes in particular that, even though the number of nurses working in municipal social and health care has increased by 40 per cent between 2000 and 2006, the shortage of nursing personnel has also increased and amounted to 4.7 per cent in 2008 as compared to 2.4 per cent in 2005. The Committee understands that initiatives in recent years to encourage the return of Finnish nurses working abroad, mainly in Norway and the United Kingdom, produced little result. It also understands that, in one of the latest developments in efforts to tackle the growing shortage of health professionals, private health-care companies have proceeded with plans to hire nurses from the Philippines, while the Government is reportedly negotiating a bilateral labour agreement with the Government of Philippines to the same effect.

In this respect, the Committee wishes to refer to the draft WHO code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel, currently under consideration, which urges member States to enter into bilateral and multilateral arrangements to promote cooperation and coordination on migrant health personnel recruitment processes in order to maximize the benefits and mitigate the potential negative impact of international recruitment of health personnel, and also calls for measures in order to retain and sustain a skilled domestic health workforce by improving their social and economic status, their living and working conditions, their opportunities for employment and their career prospects. The Committee requests the Government to continue supplying detailed information on the evolution of the situation and on any additional measures to address the problem of shortage of qualified nurses having due regard to fair and ethical recruitment practices.

Article 7. Occupational safety and health. The Committee notes that the National Public Health Institute and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health have published guides that are particularly useful for nursing personnel, including a guide on blood contamination at work and a revised guide on needle pricks and other injuries. It also notes the information on the working group on the protection of nursing personnel in the event of a pandemic and the occupational safety monitoring scheme for health care. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing full particulars on any measures, legislative, administrative or others, seeking to improve the occupational safety and health standards applicable to health-care workers.

In this respect, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the Joint ILO/WHO guidelines on health services and HIV/AIDS, published in 2005, with a view to assisting health services in building their capacities to provide their workers with a safe, healthy and decent working environment as the most effective way both to reduce transmission of HIV and to improve the delivery of care to patients. The Committee wishes also to refer to the International Labour Conference discussion held in June 2009 on “HIV/AIDS and the world of work” with a view to adopting an international labour Recommendation, and in particular to paragraph 37 of the proposed conclusions (see ILC, 98th Session, 2009, Report IV(2), page 310) which provides that public health systems should be strengthened, where appropriate, in order to ensure greater access to prevention, treatment, care and support, and to reduce the additional strain on public services, particularly on health workers, caused by HIV/AIDS.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government in its report according to which 85 per cent of all registered nurses are employed in the public sector, the nurse-to-population ratio stands at ten nurses for every 1,000 people, and the number of students attending nursing schools has increased from 11,000 in 2004 to almost 14,000 in 2007. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue transmitting all available information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for instance, statistics on the overall nurse workforce, the number of nurses leaving or joining the profession, any measures or initiatives to further improve the conditions of employment of nursing personnel (for instance, organization of hours of work with due regard for health workers’ preferences and work–family balance, pay incentives, training scholarships, etc.).