Perspectives on Bulgarian market for nurses

Perspectives on Bulgarian market for nurses

 N. Veleva, M. Draganova, G. Grancharova
Department of Medical ethics, management of health care and information technologies
Faculty of Public Health, Medical University - Pleven

 Introduction: The world has entered a critical period for human resources for public health. The shortage of qualified health personnel, including nurses, is being highlighted as one of the biggest obstacles for improving the health and well being of the global population. In Bulgaria, as in many countries, one of the most problematic current human resource issues is a shortage of nurses. In our country the challenges facing the nursing workforce are interlinked with the challenges of the healthcare reform.
Aim: This report aims by analyzing the Bulgarian market for nurses to outline the key perspectives, the main challenges and to point out potential solutions. The emphasis is on scope of coverage, but specific nursing workforce issues for Bulgaria are also highlighted.
Materials and methods: Empirical sociological inquiry with self-administered questionnaire, particularly designed for that study was applied to practicing nurses in Bulgaria.
Results and discussion: All of the respondents think that Bulgarian market for nurses suffers from the following major problems: shortage, bad remuneration, underestimation of the nursing profession. The major perspectives on the Bulgarian market for nurse are: recognition of the profession, better remuneration and increased shortage of nurses due to rise in emigration.
Conclusions: A nursing shortage has a major negative impact on health care. Failure to deal with it on national level is likely to lead to failure to maintain or improve public health.
Key words: nurses workforce, shortage, remuneration, perspectives