Kontakt 2022, 24(1):64-72 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2021.043

Nurses and midwives in Slovakia - important trends and ageing of the nursing workforceNursing - Original article

Silvia Megyesiová
University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Business Economy with seat in Košice, Košice, Slovak Republic

Introduction: Nurses and midwives play an important role in society and are essential for each human being. In Slovakia, nurses and midwives constitute the most significant group of employees in the health care institutions.

Methods: The data regarding the number of nurses and midwives in Slovakia were collected from 2000 to 2019. Chain indexes and/or fixed-base indexes were used to follow the changes of the nursing workforce. The ageing of nurses and midwives was determined by mean age and age structure. Correlation analysis was selected to detect the association between the living standard and number of nursing workforce per 1,000 people in the EU.

Results: The total number of nurses and midwives in Slovakia decreased from 40,380 in 2000 to 33,041 in 2019. This decline of the nursing workforce by 18.2% is a negative signal for the Slovak health care system. Ageing of the nursing workforce is the second negative sign for health system in Slovakia. The age structure of nurses and midwives has changed significantly. The number of nurses over 60 years of age was more than 13 times higher in 2019 compared to the year 2000. The changed age structure resulted in an increase of the mean age of the nursing workforce. The mean age of nurses increased from 37.2 in 2000 to 46.9 in 2019. In the case of midwives, the average age increased from 40.9 to 47.4.

Conclusions: The decrease of the nursing workforce along with the ageing of nurses and midwives could result in a nursing shortage in Slovakia. To stop this trend towards a nursing shortage, the Slovak government should more actively solve the problem of renumeration, create a better work environment for the nursing workforce, and promote the importance and status of nurses and midwives in Slovakia.

Keywords: Ageing; European Union; Midwives; Nurses; Slovakia
Conflicts of interest:

The author has no conflict of interests to declare.

Received: April 28, 2021; Revised: July 31, 2021; Accepted: October 4, 2021; Prepublished online: October 13, 2021; Published: March 15, 2022  Show citation

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Megyesiová S. Nurses and midwives in Slovakia - important trends and ageing of the nursing workforce. Kontakt. 2022;24(1):64-72. doi: 10.32725/kont.2021.043.
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