Below are the citation and extracts from the lead editorial in the current Lancet Global Health, and a comment from me.
CITATION: Palliative care begins with caring for nurses
The Lancet Global Health, Volume 13, Issue 6, e974
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(25)00195-0/fulltext
EXTRACTS
Only about 14% of global palliative care needs are currently met. Meanwhile, the burden of serious health-related suffering is growing, and is projected to almost double in LMICs by 2060...
The 2025 International Council of Nurses report, supported by a landmark survey, depicts a global nursing workforce in crisis, with chronic understaffing, unsafe working conditions, inadequate pay, limited support for mental health and wellbeing, and underinvestment in education. Nurses are overburdened and undervalued, leading to perpetually poor recruitment and retention...
The convergence of escalating palliative care needs and a nursing crisis demands urgent, unified action. Compassionate, holistic care for patients begins with holistic care for nurses.
COMMENT: This editorial is welcome as it underlines the importance of supporting palliative care nurses. Indeed the same is true of ALL healthcare providers in ALL areas of health care. ***Health care begins with caring for healthcare providers*** The most direct way to improve quality of care is to empower health workers by meeting their basic needs. HIFA has described these with the acronym SEISMIC [ https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa/hifa-universal-health-coverage-and-human... ]. The "I" stands for information - health workers need timely, reliable healthcare information to deliver the best possible care with available resources. A paradigm shift is needed in health systems towards meeting the needs of health workers.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org