We follow prominent articles related to the Nursing Now campaign. We endevour to keep the chronological order in which events / news happen during the 3 years of the campaign. You will thus find the most recent news at the bottom of this page.
Professor Sheila Tlou, Co-Chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, was the chairperson at the Geneva NURSING NOW launch, 27th FEBRUARY 2018.
Professor Tlou of BOTSWANA is a former Professor of Nursing at the University of Botswana and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Development in Primary Health Care for Anglophone Africa.
She is also a former UNAIDS Director of the Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, and former Member of Parliament and Minister of Health of Botswana. As Minister of Health, she led a successful AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support program whose achievements are still some of the best in Africa.
Her article 'At last, nurses get a seat at the table of health decision-making' followed the celebration of the launch of Nursing Now. In this article Prof Tlou is of the opinion that nurses now has a voice regarding decision-making.
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Professor Barbara Stilwell who lead the Nursing Now launch in Chapel Hill, the official US launch site, explains how the Nursing Now global campaign will improve the status and profile of nursing. 'Nursing Now is promoting the essential role that nurses play in today’s health care system and advocating not only for adequate funding for education and jobs, but also for the recognition that nurses are skilled, competent professionals, with many complex roles'.
Barbara Stilwell is a British nurse, researcher and academic who is currently based in the United States. She held various high-level positions at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization’s Human Resources Department. Barbara took the idea of the nurse practitioner serious and became a role model, researcher and writer. As programme director of the Royal College of Nursing, she became a government-level adviser.
She is currently the Senior Director of health workforce solutions at IntraHealth International and has helped countries around the world to manage change and development in their own health workforces. She has worked in Eastern Europe with nurses and physicians to introduce modern health care, and in East and Southern Africa to advise on health systems strengthening.
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On the day the Nursing Now campaign was launched, Elizabeth Iro, Chief Nursing Officer at the World Health Organisation, and Annette Kennedy, President of the International Council of Nurses previewed their session at the 2018 Chief Nursing Officer Summit highlighting the importance of nursing and midwifery globally and nursing's vital impact for people in our care.
Elizabeth Iro, from the Cook Islands, started in her role as Chief Nursing Officer of WHO in January 2018. She has served as her country’s Secretary of Health since 2012 and was the first nurse/midwife and woman to be appointed in this position. Among other accomplishments she implemented legislative reforms to strengthen the Cook Island's health system and developed the National Health Strategic plans (2012-2016, 2017-2021). However, for the first 25 years of her career, she was a practicing nurse and midwife, serving in several roles in the Cook Islands and New Zealand. From 2011 to 2012 she was Chief Nursing Officer of the Cook Islands.
Annette Kennedy became the 28th President of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in June 2017. Previously, she held the position of President of the European Federation of Nurses and was active in lobbying the European Parliament, Commission and Council. Annette is a registered Nurse and Midwife with a BA in Nursing Studies and an MSc in Public Sector Analysis. She was the Director of Professional Development for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) for 19 years and established the INMO's very successful Education, Research and Resource Centre.
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Lord Crisp, who previously held the post of chief executive of the UK’s National Health Service, is co-chair of the three-year Nursing Now campaign. He is also chairing the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), research group. WISH, an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), is bringing together a group of leading healthcare experts to produce a special report on the role of nursing in delivering universal health coverage. The findings of the report will be presented at WISH 2018, which will take place in Doha from November 13-14 2018.
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Lord Crisp and Ms Elizabeth Iro, the Chief Nursing Officer at the WHO, published 'Nursing Now campaign: raising the status of nurse' in the Lancet. According to them nurses are at the heart of epidemiological changes (ie an aging world, a shift to primary and community care, engagement of patients and family in their own health+disease management and the introduction of innovative technologies) in terms of service delivery. Furthermore, nurses will become influential in the future from a pure economical point and due to societal change towards empowerment of women.
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The WHO regional office for Africa reported on the launch of the Nursing Now campaign and how it would empower and support nursing to meet 21st century health challenges. The WHO consider nurses as the lynchpin of health teams, playing a crucial role in health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and care.
It is estimates that nurses and midwives represent nearly one-half of the total number of health workers around the world. For all countries to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3 of health and well-being it is estimated that the world will need an additional 9 million nurses and midwives by 2030.
These additional jobs represent a global opportunity for investment in health workers which will particularly be beneficial for women and young people.
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The WHO office for the Eastern Meditteranean region reported on the how the Nursing Now campaign will empower nurses to improve global health. The WHO, in conjunction with the International Council of Nurses, supports the Nursing Now campaign. According to the WHO the campaign will raise the status of nursing not only to improve health but also to maximize nurses contribution to achieving universal health coverage.
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On 22 March 2018 Nursing Now was launched in Kampala, Uganda. The launch coincided with the 3rd UK-East African Healthcare Summit. Nursing Now co-chair, Lord Nigel Crisp, was also the keynote speaker at the Summit. More than 100 nurses from Uganda and neighbouring countries, many in uniform, joined the conference audience for the launch. Dr Catherine Hannaway also from Nursing Now’s central team, and Lord Crisp, initiated the launch with an overview of the global campaign. Dr Hannaway started by describing her own experiences of nursing. Asking whether the nurses and others in the room were ready for the challenge - she got an overwhelming Yes we Are! response.
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In a joint statement, regarding mobilising nurses and midwives on non communicable diseases (NCDs), issued on 4th May 2018, all roles players: Nursing Now, ICN and ICM are of the opinion that the health workforce has an enormous contribution to make in both managing and preventing NCDs and needs to be a central part of the NCD strategy.
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Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, President, American Nurses Association, states that U.S. nurses are not alone in the quest to be a prominent voice at all tables in determining how to best shape and deliver healthcare. Investing in nurses is necessary to achieve global health. She states that “I believe that strengthening nursing is one of the single biggest things we can do to improve health globally." To achieve its vision, the Nursing Now campaign has developed goals that are similar to those outlined in the U.S.–focused Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.
Both the Nursing Now campaign and the report address advancing nurses’ education and professional development, including leadership skill-building and their ability to effectively function in rapidly evolving healthcare environments. Both also call for increasing nurses’ influence on health policy and engaging nurses in leadership roles at all levels. And both serve as clarion calls for investing in the nursing workforce and viewing nurses as the key to solving many healthcare-related issues.
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Nursing Now featured prominently during the Global Forum for Government Chief Nursing and Midwifery Offices and Triad meeting, co-hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Council of Nurses (ICN) and International Confederation of Midwives (ICM).
The four key take-aways from the Triad meeting were as follows:
- Nursing and midwifery is a good investment for universal health coverage, global health security and economic growth;
- Elevate role of nursing and midwifery to the health policy agenda at national level and World Health Assembly;
- Strengthen education, regulation, labour rights and practice environments in countries;
- Maintain momentum through regular implementation, monitoring and accountability of Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health and Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery.
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The WHO Independent High-level Commission on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) report was published on 1 June 2018. Nursing's voice was heard and the Commission’s report ‘Time to deliver’ recognises the enormous and growing contribution that nurses make to managing and preventing NCDs. This was the first time that Nursing Now used its network of supporters together with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to lobby globally.
The report recognises the 40 million health workers worldwide as “invaluable allies for action against NCDs” due to their skills, knowledge and trusted status. Nurses are singled out as having “especially crucial roles to play in health promotion and health literacy, and in the prevention and management of NCDs”.