Public health needs to recruit 100,000 nurses

Training professionals implies an important effort, not only on the part of people who dedicate much to study and train to develop a certain profession, but for the whole of society that has dedicated public resources to provide them with that training. For that reason, the talent leak formed in Spain, in any field, always It’s bad news.

The worst part is that, as in the case of nursing, that talent leak It is contextualized in a paradox: while the General Nursing Council records record figures in nursing requests to leave Spain for their bad working conditions and high temporality, public health Recognize a deficit of 100,000 nursing professionals.

Nursing makes the bags. Spain lives a black year for nursing. According to published The reason Based on data from the General Nursing Council (CGE), more than 1,000 nurses have requested documentation to leave to work abroad only in the first six months of 2025.

This figure could mark a historical record at the end of the year. The CGE data They point out that, in all 2023, the figure of output requests was 1,473, while in 2024 they added a total of 1,350 requests. According to Daniel Ayuso, general secretary of the General Nursing Council (CGE): “We are training them and in the end they are migrating elite professionals abroad because the working conditions of our country are not being adequate.”

The reasons for the talent escape. The causes of this migration have a name: precarious contractshigh temporality and low wages. According to The latest data Facilitated by the CGE, in 2024 10,824 new contracts for 5,802 nurses were signed, of which 77.7% (8,408 contracts) They were temporary.

According toGuadalupe Fontán, coordinator of the Spanish Nurse Research Institute, “over the years, the number of contracts has been increasing, but instead the number of people hired is significantly lower than the number of contracts. This is due to the fact that, to the same person throughout the year, many short -term contracts are made. In addition, although indefinite contracts have grown, the percentage of partial days are maintained.”

It is estimated that around 50% of professionals of the health sector is located in Interinity situation. These data draw a scenario in which the migration of nursing staff is contemplated as a way to obtain a stability and working conditions that do not find in Spain.

Destination countries. In 2023, the main countries of destination for Spanish professionals They were Norway (336 professionals) and the United States (226 nurses). Since the entry into force of Brexit, the United Kingdom has progressively reduced its interest and now registers 92 applications. Ireland, France or Canada are among the new destinations for nursing staff formed in Spain.

The paradox: Spain urgently needs them. This massive output coincides with the Official recognition In the report “Current situation and estimate of the need for nurses in Spain, 2024” by the Ministry of Health, of a structural deficit: it is estimated that, to achieve the European standard, Spain I should hire to 100,000 more professionals in the coming years.

Currently, the Spanish ratio is 6.36 nurses (nurses, in female, because 85.5% are women) For every 1,000 inhabitants, far from the European average located at 8.19, According to the latest data national and European. Experts warn that this shortage not only overloads professionals, but also reduces The quality of care and puts patient safety at risk. Ayuso argues that, to reverse this situation, it is necessary to “invest in nurses, in training, in creating new places in universities, in retaining talent so that it does not go out of our borders, in recovering those who have left out.”

The deficit is greater depending on where you live. The president of the CGE has put the focus on the inequality Territorial of the situation: “Citizens cannot be allowed to receive better attention than others based on the autonomous community in which they reside.”

There are regions such as Navarra, with 8.92 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants, which are located above the European average. Below the 8.19 in Europe, there is a Basque Country (8.09), Canary Islands (7.55), Castilla y León (7,49), Aragon (7,4), Asturias (7,34), Melilla (7,24), Extremadura (7,15), Ceuta (7,10), Cantabria (6,77), Madrid (6.54), La Rioja (6,51) Catalonia (6.5).

In the welfare vagon with the lowest ratio of nurses per 1,000 inhabitants are Murcia, which barely reaches 4.99, Galicia (5.16), Valencian Community (5.56) and Andalusia (5.56)

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