As the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) move to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure that progress continues and is sustainability, the quality and quantity of the workforce is being examined. The neonatal nursing workforce is an elusive concept as there are many challenges to accurately measuring the number of neonatal nurses working globally. Yet, the ability to describe the workforce-supply and demand is important as neonatal outcomes are directly linked to access to health professionals who are adequately trained. This article will describe the health care workforce and the need to re-examine the changing healthcare needs globally. Today's healthcare needs are shifting from an acute care, episodic focus to a population health/public health model that calls for universal healthcare globally. Disease management is shifting to health promotion and disease prevention, areas that nurses have addressed for many years. Neonatal nurses teach families about follow up appointments, how to protect against infections, feeding, and many other things that are aimed at prevention of complications. Neonatal nurses are the primary health professional providing direct care and stabilizing newborns especially during that "golden minute" after birth. Yet, the healthcare workforce including nurses is often seen as an expenditure verse and investment.1 This point of view is changing, slowly.
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