The EFN actively participated in the successful meeting of the Joint Action on EU Health Workforce organised in Florence from 7 to 9 May. Kicked off by the Italian Minister of Health, the objective of the meeting was to analyse health workforce planning and forecasting methodologies used in the different EU Member States. This exercise is going to prepare the next steps for piloting the most suitable methodologies in Italian and Portuguese regions in 2015. In this context, the EFN members agreed on the need to get comparable data and to put in place a valid and reliable system to plan and forecast the health workforce, from a Quantitative and Qualitative perspective. Collecting data on the four categories of the nursing care continuum, consisting of health care assistants, registered nurses (complying with the Directive 2013/55/EU), specialist nurses and advanced nurse practitioners, becomes a key element to get a clear evidence based understanding on the skills we need for the future.
With the implementation of the Directive 2013/55/EU and the introduction of the European Professional Card, the nursing workforce can benefit more from the free movement of professional within the EU, contributing to growth and economic development. Therefore, a correct and reliable data collection is useful to adequately monitor the mobility of the nursing profession within the EU.
The EFN is confident that a strengthened collaboration among stakeholders and Members States will help the Joint Action on EU Health Workforce to achieve its ambitious objective of improving the health workforce planning and forecasting in the near future.