Self-care is a multifaceted and multidimensional concept that includes a variety of health-related practices

Discourse around the burden that nurses have shouldered recently is not new. Over the last two and a half years, pressure on nurses and medical professionals has been enormous, and International Council of Nurses (ICN) has written about just that. With the release of the Global Self-Care Federation’s (GSCF) report, The Global Social and Economic Value of Self-Care, the importance of investing in self-care remains abundantly clear for the value it can bring to our healthcare system.

Nurses are a fundamental pillar of our healthcare system and have a trusted relationship with our patients and among our colleagues. We can directly help to increase access to care, but prevention and public health advice still is at the heart of nursing practice. It is why we support self-care and increasing health literacy.

The recently released GSCF study distinguishes self-care as a key contributor to the health of individuals and healthcare systems worldwide. As an organisation, one of ICN’s critical priorities is to inform and influence the design and implementation of health, social, educational, and economic policies at a global and regional level to promote health for all. We recognise that self-care is a multifaceted and multidimensional concept that includes a variety of health-related practices, and that there needs to be a greater recognition of these elements and the benefits of self-care from all key stakeholders.

A key part of self-care for healthcare professionals is exactly that alleviation of burden. Healthcare systems around the world are stretched thin, and we want to avoid inappropriate or unnecessary referrals that may take up resources that can be used elsewhere.

What we face

Our current estimate at ICN is that up to 13 million nurses will be needed to fill the global nurse shortage gap in the future. This is an enormous task and means that the current population of nurses will undergo significant strain.

What is needed is immediate and continuing investment in our fragile healthcare systems, and especially in the nurses and other health workers who have managed to keep them functioning through the darkest of times.

Even with this investment, equipping people with the means to self-manage their health will be key to the overall functioning of future health systems.

The report estimates that current self-care levels enable approximately 1.8bn physician hours per year to be freed up to care for more urgent needs. With appropriate self-care and healthcare policy, innovation and investment, this can rise to 2.8bn hours. We need to take proactive action in order to best support our healthcare workers and ensure that our systems continue to function for patient success.

How to implement change

The GSCF report noted a clear difference in how self-care is applied and used in high-income countries as compared with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This means that to achieve the best results, there needs to be distinct applications of policy or intentional choices concerning self-care.

In LMICs, the main self-care policy challenge is to ensure that the population has the widest possible access to self-care products, information, and education. Some of these populations do not have direct access to medical care from professionals, and have to handle treatment on their own. In these cases, self-care literacy is one of the most important factors to ensuring a successful integration of self-care into the healthcare system, and we believe that empowering individuals to learn about their own treatment, alongside investment in durable healthcare programmes, will lead to a more holistic and robust systems that combine needed professional medical care with appropriate self-care.

In high-income countries, self-care policy measures should focus on creating incentives to choose self-care as the first treatment option. These populations already have generally high rates of health literacy, so we want to encourage people to use and apply their knowledge in a safe and responsible way to treat minor ailments and illnesses.

A smooth integration

As nurses, we know just how important self-care is, and that it is a critical piece of the healthcare puzzle. People-centred care is fundamental to nursing philosophy and a key component of self-care. As we move forward and strive to establish a new healthcare paradigm, it’s crucial for self-care to be integrated – not as a separate, isolated, part of the system, but as a supporting foundation, alongside investment in trained professionals and holistic medical care programmes.

The benefits are clear not only for the health of the population and the sustainability of the healthcare system, but also for the workers involved. Giving nurses and healthcare practitioners more time to deal with urgent cases or support those with chronic conditions is critical for the health of a population, and ensures more durable, sustainable health systems in the future.