The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), Qatar Foundation’s global health initiative, has continued to promote the role of nurses as leaders in addressing some of the world’s biggest healthcare challenges through its hosting and participation in the International Council of Nurses (ICN) 2021 Congress.
WISH, through its research and global initiatives, has worked to empower nurses to take positive action, and identify where investments need to be made to develop effective nursing leaders who can drive change. At ICN 2021, the 'Nurses for Health Equity' session hosted by WISH focused on a recent WISH report of the same name. The report looks at how Covid-19 has played a pivotal part in highlighting the importance of nurses and their role in providing high-quality healthcare as well as making expert contributions across policy, education, and research domains.
.
The 'Nurses for Health Equity' session
The session provided guidelines across several key areas, including education and training, working with individuals and communities, and the role of healthcare organisations as employers, managers and commissioners, among others.
Participating in the session were Dr Billy Rosa, chief research fellow at the Department of Psychiatry in Behavioural Sciences at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, Howard Catton, CEO of the ICN, and Ariani Pertiwi, secretary of the Undergraduate Nursing Programme at the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing at the University of Gadjah Mada in Indonesia.
Dr Rosa, who is also one of the authors of the report, said: “Nurses are already empowered as advocates. What we have to do is support them in realising the potential that they have. What makes an effective advocate is somebody who can use science and patient stories to be memorable, and to make an impact towards policy change.”
The second session that WISH hosted at the event was titled 'Nursing-led Research: A Call to Action', and examined the role of nurses in leading research, including the challenges they face, emerging opportunities, and the way forward.
Participating in the session were Dr Deborah White, dean and Professor at University of Calgary in Qatar, Prof Rowaida al-Maaitah, professor at the Faculty of Nursing at Jordan University of Science and Technology, Prof Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, pro-vice-chancellor at Coventry University and programme director for the Nursing Now Challenge, and Jeannine Blake, intensive care nurse and PHD candidate at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
WISH CEO Sultana Afdhal said, “We at WISH are very proud to be part of this year’s ICN Congress. Covid-19 has highlighted how integral nurses are to creating resilient healthcare ecosystems, and we must ensure that they are listened to and trusted to lead, particularly in research, as this is how we will advance care and healthcare systems.”
