Nursing Now Challenge and The Global Health Network announce co-launch of groundbreaking global work: The 1,000 Challenge

As healthcare leaders and innovators, Nursing Now Challenge and The Global Health Network have joined forces to lead on the development of priority issues for communities around the world, in the commitment to advance Health for All.

Named The 1,000 Challenge: Research, Leadership, Impact, the project is a call out to 1,000 nurses, midwives, community health workers and their respective students in low-resource settings to identify and be supported in solving challenging healthcare issues where they live and work.

Through these studies, the partnership will serve to empower nurses and provide opportunities for leadership and career development, as well as equip them to improve health outcomes in their communities. 

Launching in September 2023, Nursing Now Challenge and The Global Health Network came together to recognise and tackle the stark inequity that currently exists in research – specifically who leads and who directly benefits from studies and their findings. It was acknowledged that nurses, midwives, and community health workers are frequently cited in work, but all too often not given the guidance or tools to lead research itself. 

Programme Director of Nursing Now Challenge Professor Aisha Holloway states: “The opportunity for two existing programmes already funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing to partner will be extremely powerful. The reach, scale, capacity, and capability to act in an agile manner is what is now required. Together we will be able to deliver research leadership education, providing a range of skills and opportunity for competency development, tailoring learning to meet need in care settings to benefit all. At Nursing Now Challenge we know our students and early career nurses and midwives are ready and willing to lead. Within this work, we are addressing six of the Sustainable Development Goals necessary to stay on course to achieve Health for All. There is no better time to take action in the year that the WHO celebrates its 75^th birthday!”

Professor Trudie Lang, Director of The Global Health Network, University of Oxford said: “The most devastating and burdensome diseases of poverty across the globe could be tackled with practical and accessible interventions, if we had this evidence. Nurses, midwives, and community health workers should identify these questions, leading the research and being recognised for this work. Typically, nurses are not given the mandate, support, and training to undertake their own health research studies. Therefore, this challenge is a fantastic opportunity to give these vital roles a mechanism for taking up a leadership role, gaining visibility and learning new skills whilst simultaneously benefiting communities on a global scale from the important new findings these studies will deliver."

The call out to nurses, midwives, and community health workers will come through the wide global combined networks of Nursing Now Challenge and The Global Health Network, comprising every global region to represent the most diverse and broad spread of people who are managing diseases of poverty.

Through every step of the process in creating research competencies and skills to offer tangible solutions for global impact, the partnership is committed to supplying the support and mentorship required from experienced healthcare professionals to address locally important issues to improve patient care. The long-term work-place training that will assure this success will set out to deliver both impactful research and empower leadership development opportunities for healthcare professionals, ultimately strengthening the global health workforce at a crucial time.

For more information and register your interest visit: The 1,000 Challenge