Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977 (No. 149) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1995)

Article 2 of the Convention. National policy for nursing services and nursing personnel. Further to its previous comment regarding the problems of nursing migration, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, adopted in 2010, which recognizes (paragraph 3.3) the specific needs and special circumstances of countries that are particularly vulnerable to health workforce shortages and provides (paragraph 5.7) that Member States should consider adopting measures to address the geographical maldistribution of health workers and to support their retention in underserved areas, such as through the application of education measures, financial incentives, regulatory measures, social and professional support. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that it has set up an inter-institutional commission with a view to developing methods to avoid the phenomenon of migration of qualified nurses. The Government also refers to the Regional Work Plan 2010–15 under the Central American Group of Nursing Professionals which seeks to develop responses to the same issue. The Government further indicates that a considerable number of nurses have been trained in the period 2008–12 thanks to international cooperation projects supported by Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Spain. The Committee requests the Government to provide in its next report updated information on the activities of the inter-institutional commission as well as the implementation of the Regional Labour Plan 2010–15, and any results achieved in terms of containing the flow of nurses leaving the country and improving the distribution of the health-care workforce between rural and urban areas.