Deep Dive: 2020 is the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

This article is part of a mini-series focused on the topics of the NCSBN's August 2019 annual meeting. Why bother? These recaps are designed to educate and inform you, the average nurse, on the hot issues of your field and broaden your scope beyond your current work environment.

A few weeks ago, the NCSBN annual meeting took place in Chicago and their lecture schedule was fortunate enough to have Elizabeth Iro, RN and the World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Nursing Officer, as their keynote speaker.

Elizabeth is a well-spoken, mild-mannered nurse from the Cook Islands and has worked in the field for more than three decades as a staff nurse, nurse manager, supervisor, and Secretary of Health of the Cook Islands. Her resume is truly impressive, as is this new position created especially for her. (Check her out on Twitter!)

She highlighted in her speech that WHO has proclaimed 2020 "will be the year of the Nurse and the Midwife" to honor the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. That means that many of the WHO's actions and initiatives will be focused on collaboration with nurses worldwide. In fact, a task force has been established to provide a platform for nurses to speak out on several critical issues in the healthcare field: gender bias, low staffing ratios, low pay [in many areas of the world], and so-called nursing scope/legal mismatches.

That last issue becomes especially important as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) such as NPs (nurse practitioners) gain prescribing privileges in various US states as well as worldwide. We must have nursing programs with the correct educational scope to produce competent APRNs and this currently remains a challenge.

Focusing on nurses will help the WHO achieve its triple billion initiative: one billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage (UHC); one billion more people better protected from health emergencies; and one billion more people enjoying better health and well-being. They ambitiously plan to accomplish these bold feats over the next five years.

Expect, in the long run, positive changes for the nursing field as education catches up to current job scope. Expect more collaboration between APRNs and physicians. And expect more nurse-centered legislation within the next few years.

Personally, I'm hoping for more states in the US mandating staff ratios and normalizing it so that it spreads worldwide. Safe staffing saves lives!

Next time we will dive deep into the State of the World's Nursing Report. Stay tuned. : )