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The world looks at nursing: recognition, leadership and work as a team.

12/05/2021

Published in

Diario de Navarra

Mercedes Pérez Diez del Corral

Dean of the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra

Today, May 12, marks yet another year of International Nurses' Day. It is difficult to say something without addressing the impact that the pandemic ravaging the world continues to have on our profession.

Over the past few months, the coronavirus has brought to light the undeniable need for nurses. In the face of the healthcare crisis, states have lifted restrictions on internship, nurses are going above and beyond their usual roles to fill care gaps. Even the news and media have highlighted our work, leadership and sacrifice during this time. The world is watching. I don't know if it is doing so for the first time, or if it is looking at us in a different way. Be that as it may, this new juncture encourages me to share a reflection.

I work in the academic world, and I often perceive that there is still a marked difference in recognition and appreciation between the different disciplines that make up health care teams in the field of health care, but not in the academic world. Pharmacy, nursing, medicine and psychology are the disciplines that, in the modern world of health care, constitute these teams. And I ask myself, is one contribution more valuable, more necessary, more important than another? After thinking about it, I can only reaffirm the idea of the irreplaceable value of each of them. So why this difference in the world of healthcare?

It is precisely the pandemic that has highlighted the value, for many, of the care provided by a nurse. A patient with a diagnosed disease such as Covid - for which we have little or no pharmacological battery to cure it - finds in the nurse his or her lifeline. Because care saves lives. And those that nursing professionals provide to their patients are based on scientific evidence, on their professional experience and on a continuous updating in science and research, which increases the body of knowledge of the discipline and becomes part of the daily internship of the professionals. 

This care encompasses everything that constitutes the individuality of each patient: their body, their affective, spiritual, family, social dimension..... They are of irreplaceable value and represent the nurse's contribution to the patient, as part of the healthcare team. People who need to be cared for see this on a daily basis. 

On a date as important as today, May 12, with the eyes of the world on nursing, I dare to ask that what has been achieved in this health crisis at the level of leadership, work in teamwork and recognition be maintained. Thus, nursing in the healthcare field will have the same strength and recognition as in the academic world.

The patient deserves and needs what each professional can contribute. Let's learn from each other, let's rely on each other's qualifications and let's admire the wonder that is each of these professions that exist to relieve, heal, care and always seek the good of patients.

Moreover, health systems will only reach their full potential when all health stakeholders contribute and combine their competencies for the common good.