International Nurses Day

Call to nurses to join the fight against chronic diseases

On 12 May each year, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world. The focus of 2010’s International Nurses Day is the important role nurses can play in leading the fight to tackle chronic disease. The need to take action against the growing threat posed by chronic diseases for health on a global level has never been more apparent, particularly in light of the fact that statistics now show that 60% of deaths globally are due to chronic disease. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is calling on nurses worldwide to move to action in both their personal lives and professional roles to work to reverse the pandemic of chronic disease.

The ICN President Rosemary Bryant called on nurses to be role models for the communities where they worked and to increase their own health through making a ‘personal commitment to eat healthily, exercise appropriately, and avoid the use of tobacco’. She hoped that through adopting this attitude to healthier life styles, ‘together we could help to halt the tide of chronic disease’. As much chronic disease is preventable, it was also suggested that nurses can advocate for legislation and regulation that facilitates healthy choices for example with regard to food manufacturing, labelling and pricing. The changes required for the reduction of chronic diseases would not occur over night, with wider changes needed in health and social policy as well as structural changes locally, nationally and internationally. The message from International Nurses Day in 2010 is that nurses can play a crucial role in achieving these changes and work to reverse the damage to health caused by chronic disease globally.

Source: ICN, 12 May 2010.

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