The UAE needs around 7,000 more nurses to overcome the staffing shortage and increase the number by at least 25 to 30 per cent.
There are approximately 23,000 nurses and midwives working across the seven emirates.
The secretary of the Nursing and Midwifery Council said that low wages, low status and limited career progression are all factors influencing the shortage.
An increase of 30 per cent would bring the number to almost 30,000, The National newspaper quoted the council officials as saying.
Fatima al Rifai, director of the federal department of nursing at the UAE's Ministry of Health and secretary of the new council, said the shortage of nurses and midwives was compounded in the UAE by the perceived low status of the profession.
"A lack of unified regulation also affects the identity and image of nurses and midwives," she said, adding that by 2015, we would like to have a new system where nurses and midwives only need to register with one agency and will all meet the same minimum standard."
