Global nurse/midwife workforce and reproductive health through social ecology lens

To explore how community social ecology factors may be associated with country registered nurse/registered midwife (RN/RM) workforce supply and reproductive health globally.

A cross-sectional design using a social ecology framework was employed.

Data were retrieved from publicly available websites for 107 countries.

Dependent variables included RN/RM density, maternal mortality ratios (MMR), and adolescent birth rates (ABR). Independent variables included gender inequality, region, country income classification, education, gross domestic product per capita, government expenditure of spending on education and health, life expectancy, percent of female seats in legislature, and labor force participation factors.

The best fit multivariable model of RN/RM density showed that after adjustment for region, country income and the GII, the percent of females with some secondary education explained most of variation in RN/RM density. The best fit models of MMR and ABR showed that gender inequality explained most of the variation. Other factors in the models were the percent of female seats in legislatures, region, country income class, and mean years of schooling.

Employing a social ecology model can useful in RN/RM workforce planning and development as countries seek multisectoral strategies for increasing the RN/RM supply and improving reproductive health outcomes.