Nursing and nursing education in Iraq: challenges and opportunities

There has been extensive damage to nursing education and training in Iraq over the last two decades through three international wars, counterinsurgency struggles in the north and south, 13 years of economic sanctions, dictatorship and foreign occupation. Fortunately, there is wide agreement that nursing is a key area for further attention. Many nursing leaders have emigrated and the numbers of nurses working in professional roles in Iraq declined sharply after 1990.

The number of nurses per population has always been low in Iraq, and fell off precipitously after foreign workers left. There is less than one nursing staff of any kind for physician today. Few of the nursing staff are qualified to what would be minimal standards of professional practice in many countries. There is a strong educational base for nursing education in three Iraqi universities, but it relates little to other schools or hospitals. Military nurses, now being integrated into the public system of hospital care, are considered to have far more technical skill levels than non-military nurses.

Iraq needs a new generation of well trained nurses to develop primary care and health education activities. Programmes in nursing administration and community health nursing need to be developed. The World Health Organization has supported the development of training centres and short courses for nursing leaders. The former six levels of entry to nursing practice have been streamlined to three. Nursing salaries since the 2003 invasion have been greatly increased. These are good beginnings, and much more remains to be done to restore nursing in Iraq.