THET is pleased to pledge support to the Nursing Now! Campaign.

Nurses and midwives make up almost half of the world’s health workforce and yet their roles in many countries health systems remain undervalued and many are unable to work to their full potential.

We are therefore pleased to pledge our support to the Nursing Now! Campaign in its efforts to improve and strengthen the position of nurses and midwives within the health workforce.

The Campaign shines a much needed light on the great disparities between the work nurses and midwifes carry out and the recognition and influence they have in their places of work. As the Triple Impact Report[3] highlights, the strengthening of the nursing and midwifery professions is key to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as they can have the triple impact of:

Improving health: Nurses have many roles: they can provide and manage personal care and treatment, work with families and communities, and play a central part in public health and controlling disease and infection.
Promoting gender equality: Developing and investing in nurses – the vast majority of whom are women – will help empower them economically and as community leaders.
Supporting economic growth: Improving health and empowering women will in turn strengthen local economies.

As our Chair of Trustees, Professor Judith Ellis noted:

“The shortfalls in both the numbers and the influence nurse’s and midwives face around the world is still an all too familiar reality. As a nurse myself, I celebrate such positive moves from the global health arena. That is why as Chair of Trustees at THET I am proud that we are supporting the new Nursing Now! Campaign.”

Through the DFID funded Health Partnership Scheme and the Johnson & Johnson Africa Grants Programme over 13,000 nurses have been trained in the past seven years. The projects have provided us with the opportunity to become extremely familiar with the invaluable roles nurses and midwives serve within their communities. Through the partnerships nurses all around the world have received training from their UK counterparts.

In Nepal, for example, people with mental health problems are highly stigmatized. As part of the partnership, a series of workshops were organised to provide mental health training for maternity care providers, a much neglected area. A partnership between Bournemouth University and Tribhuvan University worked to train auxiliary nurse midwives, like Kusha, to tackle this issue.

In Uganda, Elizabeth Nabirye, Florence Nalutaya and Mwazi Batuli were among 20 health workers that benefited from the Development of Nurse Leadership for Palliative Care fellowship project developed through the partnerships between the University of Edinburgh, Makerere University and the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU). Promoting a nurse led approach to the prescription of medication is something which the nurses feel particularly proud to be a part of, especially as in other countries this is normally carried out by doctors.

In Ghana, the NHS Glasgow and Clyde Health Board partnership- Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) Partnership have worked to reduce mortality and morbidity in burns and scald injuries in children. The partnership trained over sixty-two nurses and clinical officers, including Ziphilly.

The contributions of these nurses and the many others we will feature in the coming weeks are vital components in the endeavour to reach UHC. We look forward to updating you on our projects and on working in partnership with the Campaign to further this crucial element of the global health workforce.

At THET the belief that there is no health without health workers is at the core of what we do. In working to tackle this we recognise the dedication and tireless work ethic all cadres of the health workforce employ and look to support campaigns which we believe centre on this principle.