3,000 nurses died of COVID-19 since pandemic began: ICN

Geneva: The global nurses' federation has warned of a looming exodus of health workers with at least 3,000 nurses having died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

The International Council of Nurses said that burnout and stress had led millions of nurses to consider quitting the profession with a fewer number of experienced nurses could be left to handle regular hospital care.

The nurse's body said its colleagues had gone through "mass traumatisation" during the pandemic and "given everything they can".

ICN chief executive Howard Catton said the total number of the global workforce of nurses was 27 million with six million short during the pandemic. 

The report said the pandemic "could trigger a mass exodus from the profession" as early as the second half of 2021 while calling on governments to invest in training more new nurses to address the global shortage and better pay package to encourage nurses to stay on in the profession.

On vaccination, Catton said, "Not being protected at work adds to their distress," calling all nurses take the coronavirus vaccine.

"It is an issue of protection and safety for patients, if somebody doesn't have the vaccine then it may well be that you have to look at redeploying them to other areas," Catton said.