Professor Hildegart González named Honorary Member of the Bizkaia Academy of Nursing Sciences

Professor Hildegart González, from the School Nursing at the University of Navarra, has been named Honorary Member of the Bizkaia Academy of Nursing Sciences (ACEB). The appointment ceremony took place on Wednesday, March 4, at the University of Deusto, during an academic session in which Raúl Expósito, nurse and professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), was also honored with this recognition.

During the ceremony, Professor González gave a speech which she expressed her "deep gratitude and renewed sense of responsibility" for the appointment. In her speech, she recalled that much of her research career has focused on analyzing the relationship between nurses' professional identity and the image they project in society and in the media.

As he explained, despite the fact that nurses constitute the largest healthcare workforce and play a core topic role core topic the healthcare system, their presence in the public sphere remains limited. Before the pandemic, for example, they only appeared as source in 2% of health news stories in Spain. The COVID-19 crisis increased their visibility, but in many cases this did not translate into clear recognition of their skills and leadership capabilities in the healthcare field.

Since 2018, her research sought to provide evidence on the gap between what the nursing profession really is, the image often conveyed by the media, and the perception held by the general public. This mismatch, she pointed out, perpetuates stereotypes that portray nurses as subordinate or purely technical figures, with consequences that affect both the social recognition of the profession and its presence in healthcare decision-making spaces.

Given this status, González defended the need for nursing itself to take the lead in shaping its public narrative. To this end, he stressed the importance of strengthening professional identity and training nurses in communication skills and participation in discussion .

In his speech , he speech highlighted the role of professional organizations and scientific academies, which he defined as core topic institutions core topic safeguarding scientific rigor and promote evidence-based promote .

The professor concluded with a call to strengthen the presence of nursing in society and in decision-making spaces. "It's not just about creating a brand that confers prestige," she said, "but about protecting the viability of care." She added an idea that sums up the meaning of her research: "Communicating is also a form of care."

With this appointment, the Bizkaia Academy of Nursing Sciences recognizes the academic and research contributions of the professor at the University of Navarra School Nursing, particularly in the study of communication and professional identity in nursing.