Chief Nurse Blog: Nursing Matters January 2022

Happy 2022 everyone!

Over a half year has elapsed in my role as Chief Nurse.

This time has been instrumental for onboarding virtually, engaging, partnering, strategizing, and reflecting on our collective achievements.

Welcome to the new stellar ICN Board. Thank you to our devoted ICN team.

Gratitude and appreciation are extended to our valued National Nursing Association (NNA) members and Nursing Now Groups for your dedicated professionalism and global health caring.

My top 10 ICN Highlights of 2021 (in no order) are:

1. Connecting with members to understand the impacts of the ongoing pandemic to support and inform policy, response and recovery.
2. Delivering our first ICN virtual congress to over 5000 people with access to materials for six months.
3. Celebrating our first virtual ICN International Nurses Day (IND) global webinar.
4. Participating in the virtual delegation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) with the Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (SDNM) adopted from the floor.
5. Creation of the ICN Nursing Student Steering Group (NSSG) to represent nurses and early career nurses from all six regions.
6. Jointly publishing the Education and Labour markets for East, Central and Southern African region report and conducting a webinar to advance efforts.
7. Strengthening our ICN signature leadership programmes, Leadership for Change (LFC) and Global Nurse Leadership Institute (GNLI) with our alumni networks to amplify impact influence.
8. Leveraging climate change action with the first Health Programme at COP26, hosting an ICN hybrid event at the Health Pavilion and delivering a climate prescription letter with more than 600 organisations representing 46 million nurses, doctors and health professionals calling on world leaders to deliver on climate action.
9. Advancing gender equity for gender transformative policy impacts for nurses and health equity.
10. Knowledge translation celebrating multiple ICN publications including the revised ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses, Guidelines on Prescriptive Authority for Nurses, and Guidelines for Nurse Anesthetists.

Let us unite to amplify our efforts for nursing world health, we are 27 million strong.

Best, Michelle