Nursing in Africa today

In any description of nursing in Africa, one must consider the continent's vast size and complexity of cultures. Even the concept of nursing does not have the same meaning in all African countries. Below, Osei-Boateng updates the status of African nurses, derived from her paper that appeared in the 10th anniversary brochure of the West African College of Nursing (WACN). To simplify the analysis, she focuses only on the region south of the Sahara--excluding South Africa--in her overview of the slow progress and vast education needs of nurses caught in the web of their countries' socioeconomic and political chaos ... and lethargy.