International Health, Nurse Staffing, the Power of Social Media

I previously posted on this blog in anticipation of attending my first international nursing meeting—the  2017 International Council of Nurses Congress in Barcelona—and wrote about it later in a joint post with AJN‘s editor-in-chief Shawn Kennedy. There will also be a full report in the August issue of AJN.

Based on subsequent reflection, here are some lasting takeaways:

International health is an American nursing problem.

“Shamian asked what American nurses do for their fellow nurses around the world.”

There was a lot I didn’t know about global health. I was thankful that I’d taken some time to study a few key concepts, especially the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

In the opening session, ICN president Judith Shamian charged all nurses to take seats at policy tables and draw upon their expertise. Through her passion, I began to see a part I could play in policy making simply by keeping abreast of issues and sharpening my nursing voice.

From the plenary speech by former Secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services, Mary Wakefield, I began to see the necessity of grounding policy work with reliable, relevant evidence. And in our interview with Shamian, policy and evidence met collaboration […]

2023-01-30T10:35:53-05:00June 30th, 2017|Conference reports, Nursing|7 Comments

Talking Nursing in Many Languages: Reporting on the International Council of Nurses

Shawn Kennedy and Amanda Anderson

AJN’s editor in chief Shawn Kennedy and editorial board member and contributing editor Amanda Anderson recently attended the ICN Council of Nurse Representatives and Congress in Barcelona and present the highlights here, along with podcast conversations with two nurse leaders. A full report will be available in the August issue of AJN.

The 300 or so members of the Council of Nurse Representatives (CNR, ICN’s governing body) meets just prior to the ICN Congress, the educational conference and exhibition, which drew 8,000 registrants to Barcelona, a beautiful city on the Mediterranean. It’s a wonderful meeting and collegiality is emphasized—everyone wears a name tag with name and country, no credentials or fancy titles: we’re all just nurses. Chance meetings in elevators and at break times lead to meeting for coffee and lunch, exchanging ideas and business cards. […]

Nursing as an International Profession

For much of my nursing career, I functioned as a 100% American-minded nurse.

Even though the Ebola epidemic had trickled right into my city, before I attended a global health day at the United Nations (UN) during Nurses Week in 2015, I’d neglected to really consider nursing at the international level.

Until I listened to non-governmental organization (NGO) subject matter experts’ briefings and toured the restricted areas at the UN where global decisions were made, my view of nursing had been largely consumed with understanding things in my own backyard: my day-to-day struggles as a new nursing leader at work, the evolving Affordable Care Act (ACA), and finding ways to apply the IOM Report on the Future of Nursing to my own clinical and academic practice.

My mono-continental nursing mind began to open that day.

The briefings, and most importantly, the subsequent friendships I kindled with nurses involved in international policy work through NGOs like Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) and the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health, began to help me realize how interdependently we all practice together on a global stage and how attainable international involvement actually is.

Earlier this winter, a new nursing friend, Holly Shaw, PhD, RN, chair of the UN Advisory Council for STTI, asked me if I was attending the […]

2017-06-07T11:48:26-04:00May 23rd, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments

In Geneva, a Wider Perspective on Clara Barton’s Humanitarian Vision

By Jean Johnson, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and founding dean (retired) at the George Washington University School of Nursing, member of the Red Cross National Nursing Committee, and Linda MacIntyre, PhD, RN, chief nurse American Red Cross

To Geneva, Oct. 2-3: The Red Cross Mission Is International

Red Cross and Red Crescent Symbols Outside ICRC Museum, Geneva Red Cross and Red Crescent Symbols outside ICRC Museum, Geneva

The Clara Barton Study Tour was the idea and passion of Sue Hassmiller. As you may know from the most recent post in this series, Sue and her husband Bob were prevented from coming on this trip due to Bob’s tragic bicycle accident. Sue had insisted that Geneva needed to be part of the tour because it’s where she learned of Henri Dunant’s work to create the international Red Cross in Geneva. With Bob’s steady support in the planning phase, Sue had somehow made the trip a reality, with the second leg of the tour taking place here in Geneva.

The study tour in Geneva and the organizations we visited on our first two days there were in complete harmony with Bob’s commitment to […]

Nurses Join Fight Against Counterfeit Medicines

Hidden-in-Fake-Meds-2-1024x1809 Click infographic to enlarge

“Fight the Fakes” is a scary article in the June issue of AJN about counterfeit medicines and the role the International Council of Nurses (ICN) has taken in the Fight the Fakes campaign to inform the public about just how common the problem is and how dangerous it can be. Here’s the opening paragraph:

In February 2012, a cocktail of salt, starch, acetone, and a variety of other chemicals was delivered to 19 U.S. cancer clinics, instead of a vital chemotherapy medication they were expecting. Earlier this year, the Daily Mirror reported on black market abortion tablets that are being sold online to young teenage girls too scared to tell their parents they’re pregnant. The pills can kill if the wrong dose is taken.

The article is by David Benton, chief executive officer of the ICN, and Lindsey Williamson, the organization’s publications director and communications officer. Below is a brief blog post they sent us to give readers an idea of what’s at stake—but we hope you’ll also go ahead and read their article, which raises issues that should concern us all as patients or health care professionals.—JM, senior editor

Fake medicines are a global problem: they are reported in virtually every region of the world. Fake medicines may include products with the wrong […]

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