International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on 12 May, which is the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday in 1820. Held this year under the theme of ‘Our Nurses, Our Future’, the global campaign organized by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) sets out how nurses in future will contribute to addressing global health challenges and improve global health for all.
Nursing the world to health
Joby Baby,
Registered Nurse,
KOC Hospital, Kuwait
There are more than 20 million nurses around the world and each one of them has a story. They know about hope and courage, joy and despair, pain and suffering, and life and death. As an ever-present force for good, nurses hear the first cries of newborn babies and witness the last breaths of the dying. They are present at some of life’s most precious moments, and at some of its most tragic.
Nurses serve humanity and, by their actions, they protect the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and nations. Around the world, people recognise nursing as one of the most honest and ethical of the professions. People instinctively trust and respect nurses and the work that they do.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) believes that it is vitally important to show the world who nurses are and what they do, especially this year.The theme for the 2023 International Day of Nurses is ‘Our Nurses. Our Future’. ICN wants the voice of nursing to be heard around the globe, to spread the word about this great profession and how it contributes to the wellbeing of the world.
As carers, healers, educators, leaders and advocates, nurses are fundamental in the provision of safe, accessible and affordable care. The year 2023 is an important time for nursing. It provides the opportunity to clearly demonstrate to policy makers, health professionals and the public about the enormous contribution of nurses to health and wellbeing. This is our moment. Let us seize this time not just for the sake of nursing, but for the benefit to the health of our world.
More than 200 years later, Florence Nightingale speaks to us today. Her understanding of the physical and psychological environment of the hospital and home reveal not only a deep scientific understanding of hygiene, but health and healing, details of care that added to comfort as well as nourishment of the human spirit.
Her teaching on hygiene remains exemplary as we battle with sepsis, excess mortality attributable to hospital acquired infections: MRSA and C. difficile.
Added to that, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is poised to be one of the leading causes of mortality by 2050, in which handwashing and hygiene may be some of the most potent defenses against transmission.
Today, she would urge an intergenerational approach, with young and older leaders trained together in organizing methods and political influencing skills. Together, they would act as the new generation Nightingales who would lead the charge and create nursing as a global social movement for social good.
