On 12 May the world celebrates International Nurses Day. Nursing is one of the most in-demand and at the same time most under-invested in professions globally. Today, its importance is acknowledged and highlighted.
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International Nurses Day is observed each year on 12 May marking the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth (200th this year). The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has celebrated this day since 1965.
According
to Iris Meyenburg-Altwarg, Managing
Director of Nursing and Director of the Academy for Nursing Education &
Training at Hannover Medical University and President of European Nurse
Directors Association (ENDA), nurses play a vital role in providing health
services. “They devote their lives to caring and often stand as the first and
only point of care in their communities. Nurses play a critical role in health
promotion, disease prevention, emergency care and primary and community care
delivery. … Their various roles as caregivers, coordinators, leader
communicators, managers, family planners, educators, counsellors, record
keepers and supervisors are appreciable. It is very essential to acknowledge,
appreciate and address their contribution in challenging global health and
nursing care,” she says.
To
celebrate International Nurses Day, the World Health Organization (WHO)/Europe
has published “Competencies for nurses working in primary health care,” a set
of resources aimed at strengthen primary health-care nursing workforce
across the world. The publication is intended for policy-makers, instructors,
managers and clinicians involved in nurses’ competencies development in primary
healthcare.
Five
competence clusters are covered in the document:
- Patient advocacy and education
- Effective communication
- Teamwork and leadership
- People-centred care and clinical practice
- Continuous learning and research.
WHO/Europe
has also started developing a series of primary healthcare case studies. The
first three include
Ireland, Poland and Slovenia.
Back in April, WHO released the
first ever State
of the World’s Nursing 2020 Report in the context of The Year of the Nurse
and the Midwife celebrated in 2020. The document analyses the data on nursing from
over 190 countries and concludes
with recommendations to national governments, such as to build leadership,
stewardship and management capacity for the nursing workforce; adopt supporting
policies in various sectors; and promote additional investment in nursing
education, skills and jobs.
Image
credit: Akhmad
Muntaha via iStock
