Nursing Now is a global campaign to improve health by raising the status and profile of nursing.
Nurses are at the heart of most health teams, playing a crucial role in health promotion, disease prevention and treatment. As the health professionals who are closest to the community, they have a particular role in developing new models of community-based care and supporting local efforts to promote health and prevent disease. By developing nursing and midwifery, countries can achieve the triple impact of improving health, promoting gender equality and supporting economic growth.
Nursing Now is a growing social movement with an active network of groups working to influence global and national policy. Today, there are 587 Nursing Now groups active in 117 countries (as of February 2020) with new groups registering and launching every month.
Nursing Now is a programme of the Burdett Trust for Nursing run in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the International Council of Nurses, and is supported by a Campaign Board made up of nurses and non-nurses from around the world.
The Nursing Now name is owned by The Burdett Trust for Nursing.
Background
The Nursing Now campaign was launched in 2018 in the presence of Nursing Now Patron HRH Duchess of Cambridge with launch events and activities across the world, including the UK, Switzerland, Jamaica, USA, Jordan and South Africa. More than 30 countries were represented and many people pledged their support to the campaign from around the world. Read more.
The Nursing Now campaign was developed in response to the findings of the Triple Impact report, which concluded that as well as improving health globally, empowering nurses would contribute to improved gender equality and stronger economies. The campaign will run until the end of 2020, the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and a year when nurses will be celebrated worldwide as a result of the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.
The campaign focuses on five core areas:
Ensuring that nurses and midwives have a more prominent voice in health policy-making;
Encouraging greater investment in the nursing workforce;
Advocating for more nurses in leadership positions;
Encouraging research that helps determine where nurses can have the greatest impact, and
Sharing examples best nursing practice.
The campaign is a programme of the Burdett Trust for Nursing, an independent charitable trust based in the UK. The Campaign Board includes individuals from 16 countries alongside representatives from the Burdett Trust for Nursing, International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization. The campaign is co-chaired by Lord Nigel Crisp, co-chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, and Professor Sheila Tlou, co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition.
