The Nightingale Initiative for Global Health
by Barb Wang, BSN, RN
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
“Nurses play a critical role in society.”
If you disagree, you may very well be underestimating the responsibility nurses have in our community and in our world. Critical contributions by nurses happen daily in the health and healing of people around the globe. Global communication tools have made our world a network of amazing connections that we have only begun to understand and explore. For example, I have lately been in e-mail contact with a classmate who is working as a hospital administrator at Phebe Hospital in Liberia. He recently hosted a team from Children’s doing ENT surgery. It has also been my privilege to help facilitate scholarships to RNs from my school going to use their nursing skills in Tanzania, India and China. My own experience of a recent trip back to Taiwan to visit the hospital where I practiced as a new graduate nurse was a reminder of the universal fellowship we share with all who have gone through the training and testing that is the making of a nurse.
Children’s recently invited Dr.Cynda Rushton to speak to orientation educators and Magnet Champions about reflective practice. Dr. Rushton is one of a team of nurses and others who conceived the idea of The Nursing Initiative for Global Health. The mission of this initiative is for nurses to declare ourselves as global citizens of a world community and pledge to work together to achieve better health for all humanity by the year 2020. Even if you have never ventured far from home, you can become aware and educated of the endless opportunities for nurses to make a difference by going to the website for this initiative at: www.NightingaleDeclaration.net. There is a link to the declaration where you can join with over 17,000 other nurses who believe in the powerful role we have in creating a healthy society and a better world.
“Health is not only to be well – but to use well – every power we have.”
Florence Nightingale, 1893
Barb Wang, BSN, RN, is a staff nurse on 6th floor medical/surgical unit in Minneapolis.
|
