Afghanistan is a war-torn country that has undergone tremendous political changes in the last two decades. Health, the provision of health services and health workers, especially nurses and midwives have been affected by these changes. Many significant changes took place after the transitional government of President Karzai and after that during the presidency of Mohammad […]
Afghanistan is a war-torn country that has undergone tremendous political changes in the last two decades.
Health, the provision of health services and health workers, especially nurses and midwives have been affected by these changes. Many significant changes took place after the transitional government of President Karzai and after that during the presidency of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
Such as creating professional associations of nurses and midwives separately and creating a single council to regulate nursing and midwifery. Prior to the establishment of the Nurses and Midwives Council, the Afghan Nurses Association and Afghan Midwives Association, established in order to defense nurses and midwives’ rights, the vulnerable class with more effective group in providing quality and cost effective services.
The Afghan Nurses Association officially started its work in 2017, but due to lack of financial resources and technical support (lack of donors’ interest to invest on nursing), it was able to register only 300 members. The Afghanistan Nurses Association has been active in advocating for nurses’ salaries, increasing nurses’ capacity, establishing an educational building system, and regulating nurses’ profession.
The Afghan Nurses and Midwives Council has been one of the most significant achievements of the Afghan Midwives Association and the Afghan Nurses Association. In the field of midwifery, there are 100% women and in the field of nursing, women have played an important role. The change in the political regime of Afghanistan has had its effect that are listed in below:
• Stop the activities of the Afghan Nurses Association
• Stop the registration of nurses and midwives by the Council of Nurses and Midwives, which was on the verge of starting the process
• The unknown presence of female nurses to provide the health services due to Hejab issue. The health cover of female nurses are under the question.
• The presence of female nurses in activities other than the provision of hospital health services, such as teaching and academic roles, participation in leadership and policy-making positions (Today, we see high-level gathering are happening in the ministry of Public Health but there is not even a single female leader).
zohra sadat hashimi
