Our nurses, our future: International Nurses Day

Celebrating International Nurses Day on 12 May helps us to demonstrate the vital difference that nursing makes to people and their families locally, nationally and internationally. No matter the setting or who the patient is, all nursing staff have one thing in common: their staunch dedication to making a difference to the lives of people. We should all celebrate the extraordinary contributions that nurses make and acknowledge the crucial role they play in the provision of high-quality, safe and effective health and social care at the bedside and in the board room. Nurses are the backbone of health and care systems around the world, they offer care and support to people often at the most challenging and most vulnerable period of their lives. It should not be forgotten, however, that nurses can also be facing challenging and vulnerable periods of their lives as they provide this support.

Globally, health systems are stretched. Disjointed models of service delivery obsessed with curative care based in hospitals and a single disease approach; absence of engagement and empowerment of people and communities in caring for their own health; scarce and misaligned funding – these all take their toll on nurses and patient-facing care providers who experience moral distress on a daily basis as they are unable to offer quality, people-centred care to patients.