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Who we are?

Nursing Now is a global campaign to improve health by raising the status and profile of nursing.

Nurses are at the heart of most health teams, playing a crucial role in health promotion, disease prevention and treatment. As the health professionals who are closest to the community, they have a particular role in developing new models of community-based care and supporting local efforts to promote health and prevent disease. By developing nursing and midwifery, countries can achieve the triple impact of improving health, promoting gender equality and supporting economic growth.

Nursing Now is a growing social movement with an active network of groups working to influence global and national policy. Today, there are 266 Nursing Now groups active in 89 countries (as of June 2019) with new groups registering and launching every month.

Nursing Now is a programme of the Burdett Trust for Nursing run in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the International Council of Nurses, and is supported by a Campaign Board made up of nurses and non-nurses from around the world.

Background

The Nursing Now campaign was launched in 2018 in the presence of Nursing Now Patron HRH Duchess of Cambridge with launch events and activities across the world, including the UK, Switzerland, Jamaica, USA, Jordan and South Africa. More than 30 countries were represented and many people pledged their support to the campaign from around the world. Read more.

The Nursing Now campaign was developed in response to the findings of the Triple Impact report, which concluded that as well as improving health globally, empowering nurses would contribute to improved gender equality and stronger economies. The campaign will run until the end of 2020, the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and a year when nurses will be celebrated worldwide as a result of the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

The campaign focuses on five core areas:

1. Ensuring that nurses and midwives have a more prominent voice in health policy-making;
2. Encouraging greater investment in the nursing workforce;
3. Advocating for more nurses in leadership positions;
4. Encouraging research that helps determine where nurses can have the greatest impact, and
5. Sharing examples best nursing practice.

The campaign is a programme of the Burdett Trust for Nursing, an independent charitable trust based in the UK. The Campaign Board includes individuals from 16 countries alongside representatives from the Burdett Trust for Nursing, International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization. The campaign is co-chaired by Lord Nigel Crisp, co-chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, and Professor Sheila Tlou, co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition.

What we do

Nursing Now works to improve health globally by raising the profile and status of nursing, influencing policymakers and advocating for more nurses in leadership positions.

Nursing Now encourages health leaders to invest in nursing and introduce new models of care that maximise nurses’ contributions to achieving Universal Health Coverage.

Why Nursing Now?

Countries around the world are facing huge challenges in ensuring quality health care. Scarce resources, the rising burden of chronic diseases, and the impact of emerging factors, such as climate change, migration and ageing populations are putting health systems under strain. Furthermore, the global shortage of health workers means that there simply aren’t enough health professionals to tackle these threats.

9 million more nurses and midwives are needed by 2030.

Not only do we need more nurses and midwives, we need to develop new and innovative types of services. The future of healthcare will be more community and home-based, more holistic and people-centred, with increased focus on prevention and making better use of technology.

The changing needs of the 21st Century mean that nurses have an even greater role to play in the healthcare of tomorrow. However, maximising nurses’ contributions will require that they are properly deployed, valued and included in policy and decision-making.

Investing to improve nurses’ working conditions, training and leadership skills can deliver the Triple Impact of improving health, as well as gender equality and strengthening local economies. Maximising the potential of nurses and midwives is vital to achieving the goal of Universal Health Coverage, making sure everyone, everywhere has access to quality health care services.

Values and principles

What we do as the Nursing Now global campaign is governed by a simple set of values and principles:

1. Everybody has the right to health and health care.
2. Everyone has something to teach and everyone has something to learn. People from different countries working and learning together can develop new approaches to improving health, which benefit us all.
3. A ‘Health in All Policies’ approach – considering the health implications of decisions made across sectors – is vital. Factors as diverse as education, economic status, social capital and the physical environment profoundly affect the health and well-being of individuals and populations.
4. Health improvement relies on people working well together. Health workers and members of the public alike should bring their different skills and experiences to their shared goals. Nursing should be developed with respect to the advancement of the health workforce at large and the creation of new models of care and health promotion.
5. The campaign’s success depends on what happens locally. Nursing Now will be judged with primary reference to the day-to-day experiences of patients, citizens and health workers.

Our aims for 2020

We aim to improve perceptions of nurses, enhance their influence and maximise their contribution to ensuring that everyone everywhere has access to health and health care.

By the end of 2020, we hope to achieve:

1.Greater investment in improving education, professional development, standards, regulation and employment conditions for nurses.

• All countries have plans for developing nursing and midwifery;
• Increased investment in all aspects of nursing and midwifery; and
• More nurses in training and employment, with clear progress in eliminating the global shortfall of 9 million nurses and midwives by 2030.

2. Increased and improved dissemination of effective and innovative practice in nursing.

• Nursing organisations collectively support a coordinated global portal of effective practice and innovation used by nurses and policy makers around the world.

3. Greater influence for nurses and midwives on global and national health policy, as part of broader efforts to ensure health work-forces are more involved in decision-making.

• All global and national policies on health and healthcare acknowledge the role of nursing in achieving their goals and include plans for the development of nursing; and
• All national plans for delivering UHC make specific proposals to enhance and develop the role of nurses as the health professionals closest to the community.

4. More nurses in leadership positions and more opportunities for development at all levels.

• At least 75% of countries have a Chief Nursing Officer or Chief Government Nurse as part of their most senior management team in health;
• More senior leadership programmes for nurses; and
• The establishment of a global nursing leadership network.

5. More evidence for policy and decision makers about: where nursing can have the greatest impact, what is stopping nurses from reaching their full potential and how to address these obstacles.

• A landmark study on the economic impact of nursing is published;
• More articles on nursing’s impact in peer-reviewed A* journals; and
• A coordinated global network on research on nursing is established.

More information here