Nurses across the globe are working together as a united front against the COVID-19 pandemic and as a much-needed support for each other. Today’s International Nurses Day honors that dedication with the motto of “Nursing the World to Health,” a theme that’s spot-on appropriate for the times.
Sponsored by the International Council of Nurses (ICN), a federation of more than 130 nursing organizations throughout the world, International Nurses Day is always held on the birthday of Florence Nightingale, long considered the founder of today’s nursing profession. The day honors nurses for all they do and helps spread the importance of support for the nursing industry all over the world.
Because nurses work with all people and treat a range of short-term and chronic conditions and health problems, they are the caregivers who address the global health problems from the very front lines. Whether it’s in the most state-of-the-art hospital facility or in a patient’s living room, nurses provide care, education, emotional support, and resources. They do this in the most dire circumstances and within the safety of structured organizations, sometimes worried about their own health and safety.
The Nursing the World to Health theme highlights some of the challenges nurses face every day across the globe. The incorrect ideas that they aren’t leading, active participants in healthcare or some of the discrimination they face on and off the job are addressed in the ICN’s report for International Nurses Day 2020 Resources and Evidence.
Promoting the lifesaving work nurses do, how involved they are in healthcare leadership, and their vital role in reshaping progressive healthcare policy worldwide is all essential to helping the public understand the value and relevance of the nursing industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world exactly how dedicated nurses are to their patients—even risking their lives, and some losing their lives—to provide care to people who need it. It has also shown clearly that nurses need more support and that the world needs more nurses. The shocking reports that healthcare staff ran short of personal protective equipment shows glaring faults that exist and put nurses directly in harm’s way. Nurses are also called to navigate the systems in different countries that place healthcare on varying levels of importance and relevance to the greater good. And they also must work within the confines of the resources available to them where they are.
THE ICN sees hope in the growth in nursing leadership and influence throughout the world. As each nurse works to provide the best care, to maintain or exceed the nursing standards, to commit to lifelong learning, and to support their fellow nurses and healthcare teams, the nursing industry will see positive change.
If you ever need a reason to feel proud of the lifesaving treatment and the compassionate caregiving, you offer every day in your nursing career, the launch of Nursing Now on February 27 is a big one.
Nursing Now is organized by the Burdett Trust for Nursing, a UK-based charitable trust. As nurses’ status increases, their influence will be felt in policy, reputation, and the status of the professional nurse. Nurses themselves can begin to tackle some of the biggest challenges that are facing humanity in the next century.
No matter what location nurses practice, they face similar challenges. They want the best opportunity and training to offer their patients top-notch care so they can lead better and healthier lives on their own and within their communities. Nursing Now will push for those changes, but nurses will see them happen slowly in their own communities and then on a broader national level before becoming a worldwide trend.
The launch is the first step in an initiative that runs through 2020. Nursing Now will support other programs around the world and hep nurses become more able to influence the ways in which they work and effect change with patient and community health.
1. Greater investment in improving education, professional development, standards, regulation and employment conditions for nurses.
2. Increased and improved dissemination of effective and innovative practice in nursing.
3. Greater influence for nurses and midwives on global and national health policy, as part of broader efforts to ensure health workforces are more involved in decision-making.
4. More nurses in leadership positions and more opportunities for development at all levels.
5. More evidence for policy and decision makers about: where nursing can have the greatest impact, what is stopping nurses from reaching their full potential and how to address these obstacles.
Nursing Now recognizes that global change begins as people work together in each and every community. As nurses band together for change, the momentum will grow and impact greater people and reach into higher changes.
The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Nursing will host with United States launch event, and nurses will be able to check the main website throughout the day to learn about other events worldwide.
On February 27, check out Nursing Now and envision and even stronger and more influential nursing future.
Each year, National Nurses Week brings celebrations across the United States. But within that week is an important reminder of the work that nurses do across the globe, under varying conditions, with dramatically different equipment, but with the same steely determination to protect the health of the people they care for.
This year, International Nurses’ Day is celebrated on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Nightingale, as many know, is considered an early healthcare innovator who founded modern nursing practices and helped shape nursing to such an extent that her influence remains to this day. Nightingale’s passion for aiding the ill and injured and keeping nursing practices focused on sanitation helped saves lives of those in her care and countless lives today.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) sponsors the day and has designated this year’s theme as “Nurses: A Voice to Lead, Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” Nurses around the world can participate and unite their nursing voices by using the hashtags #VoiceToLead and #IND2017 in their social media posts.
The SDGs are a collection of more than 17 goals that impact nurses and the care they provide. The health inequities experienced by people around the world result from a mix of factors, but all impact the sustainable development issues facing nurses today. The issues range from ending poverty (that’s goal number one) to improving health and education and fighting climate change.
In honor of International Nurses’ Day, which debuted in 1965, the ICN is providing case studies from nurses across the globe—for instance there’s the story about addressing COPD in China to reducing the HIV stigma in Zambia.
For nurses who are interested in finding out more or adding their voice to the international nursing community, a Resources and Evidence toolkit is available for download.
According to the International Council of Nurses website, the organization “is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally.”
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