Nurse association president calls for better training, solution for shortages

More efforts are needed to improve training for nurses in China so they can meet public demand, including in cases of emergency, the president of the Chinese Nursing Association said on International Nurses Day.

The number of registered nurses in China reached nearly 4.5 million by the end of last year, more than double the number 10 years ago, but in general they are not equally distributed. There is still a shortage of nurses in grassroots medical institutions and rural areas, said Wu Xinjuan, also head of the nursing department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

"We need to attract more young people to join the team so nurses can further meet the demand from the public in both quantity and quality," she said at a news conference on Tuesday.