ICN’s primary health care webinar explores how student and early career nurses can influence policymaking from the start of their nursing careers

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) held a webinar on Primary and Preventative Health Care on 4 December 2024, which focused on how student and early career nurses can get involved in policymaking from the very start of their careers.

The webinar, which had over 420 participants from more than 70 countries, was moderated by ICN Senior Policy Adviser Hoi Shan Fokeladeh.

It highlighted the vital importance of primary and preventative health care in meeting the World Health Organization’s (WHO) challenging goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. WHO has suggested that 90% of that UHC target can be achieved through primary health care (PHC). ICN’s Chief Executive Howard Catton delivered opening remarks, reminding participants that “If the road to universal health coverage is primary health care, then that road is paved every single step of the way with nurses”.

He shared inspiring examples of advanced nurses improving the health of their communities through a preventative, integrated PHC approach. This included the ICN Board’s recent visit to Cuba, where they observed the success of polyclinics, run by specialist nurses as part of a multidisciplinary team, which now serve as the Cuban population’s primary healthcare access point and achieve strongly positive health outcomes.

Mr Catton also addressed key challenges, from inadequate funding for non-hospital based care to a lack of student placements and defined career pathways for nurses in community settings. He called for investment in career pathways, in education, and in placements to support nurses to take a leading role in the transition to PHC.

This was echoed in the insights brought by Soyeon Park, a fourth-year nursing student at Korea University in South Korea, and a member of the ICN Nursing Student Steering Group. Her recent research on nursing students and PHC has shown that their level of awareness and interest in PHC is low.

Ms Park said that this lack of interest is largely due to one overarching issue - a limited understanding about PHC. She said this limited understanding results from a lack of knowledge and a lack of awareness, which, in turn, are the result of how their clinical training is structured, including their limited time (150 hours) in community placements.

“The lack of knowledge stems from the nursing curricula. Limited exposure to PHC prevents students from developing a solid understanding of PHC and its significance. The second aspect, a lack of awareness, is a direct consequence of PHC and its significance.”

Ms Park said the lack of awareness of PHC among nursing students is a direct consequence of insufficient knowledge and the way clinical training is structured.

“Ultimately this combination of limited theoretical education and inadequate clinical exposure leads to a misconception among students that PHC may not as significant as acute care.” 


She said that ageing populations and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases demonstrates the need to shift the balance of care from hospital to community, with nurses as key workers in care coordination roles.

Ms Park proposed two strategies to increase nursing students’ knowledge and awareness of PHC as an alternative career path to acute care. First, an increased emphasis on PHC in the nursing curriculum would help to demonstrate its importance. And second, students need to see credible, senior nurses actively engaged in PHC and effectively promoting their work as an inspiring career choice.

Overall messages from the webinar, a recording of which can be found here, include the need for nurses to be involved in:

• Increasing awareness and understanding of primary health care (PHC) among student and early career nurses
• Improving nursing curricula and the practice placements of students to reflect PHC as the dominant locus for treatment
• Nurses are critical health care providers in the full continuum of comprehensive primary care, including rehabilitation care
• Advanced practice nurses play a pivotal role in improving health outcomes by enhancing the management of chronic conditions
• Redesigning health care services away from illness/hospital services towards PHC services that are delivered wherever they are needed.
• Advocating for change and lobbying the policymakers and politicians who can make the decisions needed to turn talk into action
• Recognising that policymaking takes time and the importance of celebrating progress along the way towards any goals

As the 2030 deadline for Universal Health Coverage approaches, ICN’s webinar emphasized the critical role nursing students and early career nurses can play in achieving our global health goals. Mr Catton said: “The future of health lies in primary health care, and the future of primary care lies with our next generation of nurses. ICN is proud to support them in becoming the health care leaders and policy advocates the world so urgently needs.”