A global assessment of kidney care workforce.

Background: An adequate workforce is needed to guarantee optimal kidney care. We used the International Society of Nephrology Global Kidney Health Atlas (ISN-GKHA) to provide an assessment of the global kidney care workforce.

Methods: We conducted a multinational cross-sectional survey to evaluate the global capacity of kidney care and assessed data on the number of adult and paediatric nephrologists, the number of trainees in nephrology and shortages of various cadres of the workforce for kidney care. Data are presented according to the ISN region and World Bank income categories.

Results: Overall, stakeholders from 167 countries responded to the survey. The median global prevalence of nephrologists was 11.75 per million population (pmp) (interquartile range [IQR] 1.78-24.76). Four regions had median nephrologist prevalences below the global median: Africa (1.12 pmp), South Asia (1.81 pmp), Oceania and Southeast Asia (3.18 pmp) and newly independent states and Russia (9.78 pmp). The overall prevalence of paediatric nephrologists was 0.69 pmp (IQR 0.03-1.78), while overall nephrology trainee prevalence was 1.15 pmp (IQR 0.18-3.81), with significant variations across both regions and World Bank income groups. More than half of the countries reported shortages of transplant surgeons (65%), nephrologists (64%), vascular access coordinators (59%), dialysis nurses (58%) and interventional radiologists (54%), with severe shortages reported in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Conclusions: There are significant limitations in the available kidney care workforce in large parts of the world. To ensure the delivery of optimal kidney care worldwide, it is essential to develop national and international strategies and training capacity to address workforce shortages.