Question: What is the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife?

Answer: A year-long effort during 2020 to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives, highlight the challenging conditions they often face, and advocate for increased investments in the nursing and midwifery workforce.

Question: Why is 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife?

Answer: In May last year the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed that 2020 would be dedicated nurses and midwives, providing a “once in a generation opportunity” to showcase the professions. It chose the theme to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.

Question: What are the aims of the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife?

Answer: The WHO wants to raise the status and profile of nurses and midwives, and to highlight that the world needs nine million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030 and, therefore, to encourage global government investment in the two professions.

Question: What the key organisations partnering on the event?

Answer: World Health Organisation, International Confederation of Midwives, International Council of Nurses, Nursing Now and the United Nations Population Fund.

Question: How can you get involved?

Answer: The WHO has pulled together a toolkit, describing the next 12 months as a unique opportunity to get involved and demonstrate broad public and political support for more health workers.

What people say about the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife

“Without nurses and midwives, we will not achieve sustainable development goals or universal health coverage”
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general, World Health Organisation

“The 20 million nurses around the world will be thrilled to see their profession recognised in this way”
- Annette Kennedy, president, International Council of Nurses

“Investing in nursing and midwifery will make an enormous contribution to the rapid, cost-effective and high quality scaling up of universal healthcare”
- Nigel Crisp, co-chair, Nursing Now

*This article has been sourced from nursingtimes.net