“For us who Nurse, our Nursing is a thing, which, unless in it we are making progress every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back. The more experience we gain, the more progress we can make.” — Florence Nightingale
Health challenges vary and are related to different socioeconomic and geographic conditions. Furthermore, there are common health challenges shared by people around the world. As globalization advances, the awareness of the importance of global health and global nursing also increases among policy makers and health professionals. A world without nurses is almost impossible to imagine. Everywhere you turn, nurses are there to provide leading-edge treatments to patients from all walks of life. Nurses work in various settings, including wellness clinics, hospitals, schools, churches and businesses, and they work with people throughout the lifespan. Florence Nightingale the mother and the founder of modern nursing of professional nursing, the birth day of whom falls on 12th May, and is observed as “International Nurses Day” globally said, “Nature alone cures. What nursing has to do is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.” Known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, she revolutionised nursing and reformed hospitals. She dedicated her life to the helpless and miserable. A true heroine for the soldiers during the Crimean War, she hardly slept at night, choosing instead to go on rounds around the hospital just to ensure the wellbeing of the soldiers – the reason for her iconic title. She died of a disease stuck in her during serving soliders in Crimean. Nurses are leaders who make a positive difference by advocating for health and providing healthcare throughout the world. As a human caring science and profession, nursing have the expertise and capacity to lead and advocate for social changes working with the communities and collaborating innovatively with different members of the health team. A humanistic and holistic nursing practice is sensitive to culturally rooted ideas and appreciates cultural sensitivity to achieve better health care. Nursing is an innovative, challenging and rewarding career that’s in high demand, offering those who pursue this career an opportunity to profoundly change human health. Working on the front-lines of patient care, nurses can choose from many specialties, and work in a wide variety of treatment settings. Nurses work closely with patients, and understand patients’ needs better than anyone. Which is why they’re the ones who often find new solutions to health challenges that can make a significant difference in patient outcomes? They are critically important in addressing public health issues facing communities across the country.
While the COVID-19 crisis will eventually pass, nurses — nationwide and around the globe — will continue to fight valiantly and with dignity to protect and respect the rights and safety of their patients. They are led by an empathetic energy to work long hours every day at healthcare facilities, to improve the health of others. They are at the forefront of global health care. They provide individualized patient care, but they also educate, innovate and advocate for the health and well-being of whole communities, whether it is in an international setting or in their own backyard. By thinking globally, nurses have the power to move mountains. The impact of these healthcare professionals is everlasting, immeasurable, and just like the nurses in blue and white, their efforts will not be forgotten. Whether during times of war or national emergencies, nurses have always been on the front lines. They provide compassionate, skilled and quality care, always with a “can do” attitude and never giving excuses. They are among the first to welcome a new life, comfort the dying, save a life, understand the misunderstood, give hope to the hopeless, fight for the ones without a voice, and create solutions for the betterment of the patient and profession. In various remote or rural areas throughout the world, there is not enough money to pay a doctor to set up a practice. Fortunately, nurses are excellent in the role of caring for mothers before, during and after childbirth. Also in poverty-stricken areas, physicians may not be available to provide primary care services, and nurses are there to deliver many of those services that would otherwise be unavailable to the community. To ensure that health systems have structures and processes in place that support the delivery of efficient, safe and high quality care, nurse educators needs to ensure that the next generation of nurses are well equipped to be at the forefront transforming care. Nursing students need cutting edge leadership content, education in social and environmental determinants of health to recognize the links between health and efforts and a substantive orientation to global health problems. With this orientation and knowledge, the next generation of nurses around the world, will have the opportunity to do even more to improve health and health care by being a transformative force for change. In many instances, despite their significant contributions across the globe, nurses are treated almost as though they are invisible. They deserve to have a prominent voice when world leaders get together to address health issues and develop national and international policies. They also need access to more resources, such as mentorships, leadership and nursing education. We need to advocate for nurses having a greater voice on the world stage for their contributions to healthcare and mankind irrespective of gender, age, colour, religious, caste etc.
(The author is former Incahrge Abhedananada Home-Higher Secondary Institution for Inclusive Education, Solina, Srinagar, J&K. Views are his own)
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