A new report from Global Nurses United offers insights on and answers to deliberate understaffing in health care systems across the planet.

Today, Global Nurses United (GNU), the premier federation of international nurse unions representing more than 2.5 million nurses and other health care workers in 35 countries around the world, released Global Crisis, Collective Solution: Addressing the Worldwide Nurse Staffing Crisis, a groundbreaking report examining the nurse staffing crisis affecting healthcare systems across the planet.

Drawing on international research and firsthand experiences of GNU's affiliate unions, this report documents how deliberate understaffing by hospital industries endangers both nurses and patients while undermining healthcare quality. The crisis manifests differently between regions, but the root causes share common themes: Undervaluation of nursing work, inadequate labor protections, technological disruption without proper oversight, and systemic disinvestment in public health infrastructure.

The new report also details how organized collective action by nurses has proven most effective in securing meaningful reforms, particularly the efficacy of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation that places limits on patient loads for nurses. The report finds that strengthening labor rights and empowering nurses to advocate for workplace improvements are essential components of any effective solution to the global nurse staffing crisis.

Nursing is a global profession premised on identifying and solving public health problems across the world through international collaboration, sharing of nursing knowledge, and equitable distribution of health care resources. Nurse-to-patient ratio standards that are enforceable protect patient safety, nurses’ safety, and ensure high standards of nursing care that every patient deserves.

Globally, nurse unions are already playing an important role in the fight for safe staffing and healthy workplaces as union nurses fight to implement minimum nurse-to-patient ratios – an essential element of repairing the global nurse staffing crisis.

The new report is available in more languages here.

Global Nurses United is the preeminent international federation of nurse unions, with 41 affiliated unions across the world, working together to fight for labor rights for nurses, health and safety protections in the workplace, strong public health infrastructure, and safe and therapeutic patient care for patients and communities everywhere.