C3 speaks to 5,300 nurses at ICN Congress in Singapore

5,300 nurses from 140 countries met at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Congress in Singapore 27 June – 1 July 2019. C3 enjoyed a high profile at the event. Christine, our director and founder, is a former President of ICN and was greeted enthusiastically by many nurse leaders from across the world. She gave a keynote address to a large, keen audience on the importance of prevention and 93% of the audience agreed that nurses’ own health has an impact on their role in prevention.

In collaboration with two sponsors C3 had an exhibition stand which provided the opportunity to talk with hundreds of nurses about prevention and in particular to raise the issue of the importance of nurses’ own health using the concept of Nursing You. Congress participants were interested to hear about the Nursing You app and the online obesity course available through the College of Contemporary Health. However, it wasn’t just nurses who visited our stand, so too did Dr Tedros, Director General of WHO.

C3’s director Christine Hancock (right) meets with WHO Director General Dr Tedros (centre) and Annette Kennedy, ICN President (left).

We also surveyed representatives of national nurses associations in which respondents stressed the importance of addressing the workplace barriers that impede nurses’ ability to lead healthier lives.

Around 80 nurses participated in a lively, interactive symposium about the C3 nursing programme. This provided a welcome opportunity for participants to share their ideas and examples of good practice in promoting and supporting the health of the nursing workforce in their countries.

It was wonderful to see nurses’ health climbing up the agenda. For example, a poster from Slovenia outlined a survey of 640 nurses on the importance of leadership behaviour in association with nurses’ health and well-being. That concluded that it is important that management constantly monitor nurses’ job satisfaction and well-being, and take care for nurses´ health by providing a healthy work environment. There was also a wonderful presentation on the factors influencing the health and wellbeing of the Caribbean nursing workforce, triggered by many nurses feeling stress and burnout at work. The solutions varied across the islands from support with health insurance to self-defence training, from a free to attend physical activity programme to protocols for hand-washing. All were in agreement that the health and wellbeing of nurses is essential for improved patient outcomes.

There was a particularly innovative piece of work by nurses from Sweden on the issue of tobacco cessation by the nurses themselves and then using what they had learned in helping patients to stop smoking.

It is with huge thanks to our sponsors, MAXIMUS and The College of Contemporary Health, that we were able to attend ICN Congress.