"It is common to hear people say that a doctor saved their life. But it is very rare to hear someone say this about a nurse. However, every day, nurses save lives, preventing infections, detecting other complications in patients who are already hospitalised, accompanying them through treatment and promoting healthy lifestyles. People don't know our work, that's why we have to make it known", said Annette Kennedy in the VIII lecture of the Chair María Egea of the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra. The president of committee International Nurses (ICN) focused her lecture on the visibility of the profession and leadership in nursing as the way to sustain health systems and move towards a higher quality of care.

data Kennedy began her speech by providing some background on ICN, which this year celebrates its 120th anniversary and has members in more than 130 countries. "From the beginning we have advocated and worked to improve the Education and the training of nurses, we have defined the profession and advanced greater and better visibility and we have collaborated with other bodies, such as the Red Cross, the ILO and the WHO, to ensure that nurses and nursing are central to health care around the world," she said.

Among the initiatives launched, Annette Kennedy highlighted the Nursing Now movement, a global campaign, also involving WHO, whose goal is to improve global health by raising the profile of nurses worldwide, influencing policy makers and supporting nurses themselves to lead, learn and build a global movement. "The Nursing Now campaign is set to change the way our communities, leaders and governments view the Nursing profession, and ICN is proud to be connected to what we believe will create significant change in the vision and value of our profession," he said.

2020: Year of the Nurse and Midwife

During her lecture, Annette Kennedy also welcomed the proclamation of 2020, the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. "This celebration will do much to elevate the profile of Nursing and will highlight the need for better educated nurses, investment in recruitment and retention strategies, and the removal of barriers to development for advanced nursing roles, which have already proven highly effective in expanding health coverage," she said.

"Nursing and ICN have a long and illustrious past, but we want them to have a long and successful future. Students and young nurses are our future, and they are our future leaders," he concluded.

The lecture, which took place at the University of Navarra's campus in Madrid, was attended by around a hundred people.

The Chair María Egea for the research in Nursing was approved on 30 January 2007. It is an initiative created by the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra to channel the commitment of training and research in the field of Nursing, promoting those activities that contribute to deepening the principles on which it is based and that can generate, with their own voice, new useful knowledge to provide better care for the person.