Washington meeting 2010

This is a report of a meeting, ‘Nurses leading the fight against chronic disease’, held at the headquarters of the American Nurses Association on 24-25 June 2010.

Introduction

Nurses from across the world gathered in Washington DC to join and lead the fight against chronic disease.  The event was organised by a partnership involving the International Council of Nurses (ICN), C3 Collaborating for Health, Pfizer Inc, the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the International Association of Patient Organizations (IAPO).  The purpose of the meeting was to explore:

1. How nurses can be supported and mobilised/enabled to adopt and promote healthy lifestyles to reduce the risk of chronic disease for themselves, their families and communities;
2. The development of action plans to engage nurses in taking a lead role in the fight against chronic disease in their own countries;
3. Scaling up through local partnerships.

Those attending the meeting included nurse leaders from Malta, Panama, Slovenia, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States, who participated alongside world experts in the field of chronic disease including representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, the Center for Global Development and Tobacco Free Nurses.

Format

The meeting included presentations from experts on managing the three most common risk factors for chronic disease, namely the use of tobacco, lack of physical activity and poor diet; an exploration of the chronic disease challenge globally; and a particular emphasis on the reality of the challenge facing participant countries and their response to it.

Country representatives drafted action plans aimed at enhancing the contribution that they and their national nurses association (NNAs) could make in preventing chronic disease. These plans and the appropriate levels of support, monitoring and evaluation required will be further discussed and refined by the NNAs.

Of particular benefit was the enthusiastic ongoing involvement and contribution of presenters across the two days. Participants, both country representatives and presenters, took the opportunity to complete individual health risk assessments and to develop personal action plans to limit their risk and improve their own health and well-being.  The meeting included activity breaks and healthy food and refreshments were provided.

Presentations

• For the expert presentations, click here >>
• For country-specific presentations, click here >>

Next steps

Country representatives agreed to refine and develop their action plans.  Monitoring and support will be provided and it is anticipated that feedback, evaluation and further roll-out will take place during the ICN biennial conference in Malta in May 2011.

The organising partners will continue to work together to address issues emerging from the meeting and to shape and drive forward this movement to engage nurses in the fight against chronic disease.