The new German government has also brought about a change in personnel at the Ministry of Health. Nina Warken took over from Karl Lauterbach as Federal Minister of Health last week. She is calling for more powers and better working conditions for nursing staff. She believes it is important to tailor tasks more closely to their skills in order to make the profession even more attractive.

In their coalition agreement, the governing parties CDU and SPD agreed, among other things, to introduce a law on nursing skills. A draft presented by Lauterbach aimed to enable qualified nursing staff to make decisions independently without medical instructions when caring for patients.