The World Health Organization has designated 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, to both acknowledge the critical roles of nurses and midwives in transforming health care around the world and in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
In my lectures on nursing and health policy, I reflect on my growing appreciation of the incredible legacy of Florence Nightingale that we all share in some way. She was so much more than "the lady with the lamp." She was a nurse educator and scientist, a statistician, and a critical thinker who used big data to design better health systems. She was also a prolific writer, publishing more than 200 books, pamphlets, and articles in her lifetime. She often wrote in simple, plain language so that the public could understand her information on health, wellness, and illness prevention. She used visual diagrams, the 19th century version of modern infographics. Today, we call that promoting health literacy.
Her advocacy for social reforms is astonishingly relevant today. She advocated for health care for all, hunger relief, abolishing harsh prostitution laws, and fair and respectable conditions for women entering the workforce as professional nurses. Today, nurses across the globe are concerned about health care access and universal health coverage, food insecurity, the human rights and health of sex workers and other marginalized people, gender equality, and the equitable representation of nurses in positions of leadership and decision making. All within the context of compassionate, evidence-based, person-centered, and holistic care, a modern version of "the person with the lamp." One definition of legacy is something transmitted or acquired from a predecessor. We have quite a legacy to acknowledge and celebrate in 2020, the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
In this year, we also have a unique opportunity to raise the visibility of the nursing profession globally and to recognize the impact and potential of nurses in all aspects of health care, including clinical care, wellness and prevention, research, health policy, and addressing intersectional issues such as racial and gender disparities, poverty, climate change, conflict and migration, and other social justice concerns. Reaching the full potential of nurses and midwives in addressing these challenges and continuing to contribute to solutions at the individual, local, national, and global levels will require a greater investment in the development and capacity of the nursing workforce. This includes investments in nursing education, nursing research and scholarship, nursing leadership, and the settings where nurses practice.
In 2018, ANAC was proud to join the Nursing Now campaign with the American Nurses Association, the International Council of Nurses, the World Health Organization, and many other nursing organizations and individual nurses. Nursing Now (https://www.nursingnow.org/) is a 3-year global campaign to improve health by raising the status and profile of nursing, now culminating in the designation of 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Throughout this year, we will be highlighting the contributions, knowledge, experiences, and insights of nurses and midwives in addressing both small and large global health challenges. We invite you to be a part of that. Share your story with us via mailto:[email protected] or on social media @ANACnurses and use hashtag #YON2020.
Disclosures
The author is the director on an educational project on HIV and aging awarded to ANAC by Gilead Sciences, Inc. She receives no direct financial benefit. ANAC is solely responsible for the content of the project.