A tribute to global nurses

The Filipino nurse, practicing here and abroad, joins the international nursing community in the celebration of International Nurses’ Day on May 12, 2012 with the theme “Closing the Gap: From Evidence to Action.” The International Council of Nurses, the umbrella organization of accredited national nursing associations in which PNA is a member of good-standing could not have chosen a more appropriate callbased on hard and unequivocal evidence that “health systems throughout the world are being challenged by inequites in quality and quantity of services and by reduced financial resources.”

The Philippines is a case study of a country seriously facing inequities in health involving both the recipients of health care and the health providers. The nurses who comprise the biggest personnel in the health delivery system are generally beset with problems like unemployment, poor work conditions, and lately, the rampant contractualization of young newly registered nurses. For years on, the PNA has borne the task to assert and push for the observance of work conditions approximating a “positive practice environment” that basically assures nurses of “equal pay for equal value of work.” This is anchored on solid evidence that the quality of work conditions has proportional impact on the quality of care rendered by the nurse.

Globally, nurses are collectively making their voices heard, asserting their value in society where health needs of a growing population require the special skills and training of a nurse. The emergence of new disease conditions, aggregately refereed to as “non-communicable, lifestyle related diseases” alongside communicable, infectious diseases that continue to be prevalent among vulnerable groups in poor, marginalized communities like the women and children and the geriatrics — are the health challenges that confront the nurse. But for nurses to be able to effectively carry out their roles, barriers in the work-setting must also be addressed.

The PNA, as the accredited, mass organization of professional nurses has on outstanding record to show for its leadership notably in the legislative arena with the passage of RA 9173 or the Nursing Law of 2002. Present nursing leaders too, in various fields and in different capacities, have taken and are taking positive steps to make nursing practice more relevant to the times at the same time responsive to the needs of the nurse practitioners. Among these are the “Nursing Roadmap 2030” and amendments to the Nursing Law. Imperative to these efforts, however, is the engagement of the nurses on the ground whose concrete experiences provide the empirical bases, the solid evidence, that will anchor such actions/s taken by the leaders. The active involvement of nurses in their numbers is what will comprise the critical mass essential for significant change to happen. By consistently and diligently engaging the nurses on the ground, we may come closer to bridging (if not closing) the gaps in nursing practice and service.

On the occasion of the International Nurses’ Day, let us hail the nurses all over the world for their remarkable and infinite service to mankind.