Dr. Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu will become WHO’s Chief Nursing Officer. Previously Minister for Health of the Kingdom of Tonga, and before that Tonga’s Chief Nursing Officer, Dr Tuipulotu will join WHO in the first quarter of 2023.
Elizabeth Iro, WHO’s first CNO, stepped down in November, 2022 after five years in the position. Ms. Iro’s work contributed to several comprehensive and landmark reports on the challenges nurses and midwives face and the greater role they play in improving global health, including the first State of the World Nursing Report in 2020. Based on the data in these reports, the World Health Assembly, in 2021, adopted a resolution on strengthening nursing and midwifery. These advances would not have been possible without the championing efforts of Ms. Iro. As she once said, ““If they [nurses & midwives] are enabled to practice according to the scope and they are provided the resources to do so…this has benefit for the patients, for the community as well as for the country.”
As WHO’s Chief Nursing Officer, Dr Tuipulotu will continue Ms. Iro’s outstanding work and will champion, nurture and support nurses and midwives to ensure that their skills and experience are being well-utilized to strengthen health systems and to bolster their critical role in bringing patients, communities and national health systems closer together.
In 2019 Dr Tuipulotu became the Kingdom of Tonga’s first female Minister for Health, serving until December 2021. From 2014 to 2019, she served as Tonga’s Chief Nursing Officer. Previously, she was Director of Nursing at Vaiola Hospital, the country’s main referral hospital. She was the first Tongan to receive a Ph.D. in Nursing. In 2019, she was appointed Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney.
From May 2020 to December 2022, Dr Tuipulotu was a member of the WHO Executive Board; she was elected EB Rapporteur in 2020. For full article click here.
Pan American Nursing & Midwifery Collaborating Centers 