Nursing the World to Health

I am writing this post as National Nursing Week in Canada draws to a close. It has been a strange time of celebration mixed with sadness at the losses experienced globally and the ongoing concern about the health of populations and the long road to recovery.

During this Nursing Week, I found that our Canadian nursing leaders reflected what many of us have been thinking about our profession during the time of COVID. I greatly appreciated reading CNA President Claire Betker’s editorial in the Canadian Nurse: On the importance of nurses in 2020. Claire highlighted the opportunity to raise the profile of the profession during the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife and demonstrated the many ways in which Canadian nurses have made an impact.

International Nurses Day was celebrated globally on May 12, the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. This year’s theme, Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Nursing the World to Health captured both the spirit and the urgency of nursing’s vital global role. The International Council of Nurses provided excellent resources on its International Nurses Day site and was highly visible in media interviews and in generating social media energy. ICN’s CEO Howard Catton tweeted: “Let our celebrations be a clarion call for real commitments to actions and investments to support nurses to do the work that the world desperately needs them to do.” Annette Kennedy, ICN President, expressed her appreciation to the global nursing community and held a great video conversation with Dr. Tedros on May 12. It’s worth viewing and reflecting on their messages!

This week also provided opportunities to profile the State of the World’s Nursing 2020 Report, released in April 2020 and now gaining attention. This landmark publication has highlighted the urgent need for acceleration of nursing education, job creation and leadership. The report’s call to strengthen nursing leadership is “to ensure that nurses have an influential role in health policy formulation and decision-making, and contribute to the effectiveness of health and social care systems” (WHO, 2020).

Nursing Week 2020 has played out in a vastly different way than anticipated; however, there is no doubt that the theme of “Nursing the World to Health” is more important than ever as we face the remainder of 2020 using a professional, powerful and collective voice to lead.

By Nora Whyte – May 15, 2020