International Council of Nurses [Centennial]

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ICN Proudly Celebrates its 100th Birthday Christopher Reeve Champions Nursing as Honorary Patron The ICN Story - 1899-1999 The World in 1899 Centennial Nurses ICN Centennial Conference Overview
ICN Proudly Celebrates its 100th Birthday

Christopher Reeve Champions Nursing as Honorary Patron for the International Council of Nurses' Centennial Year

GENEVA, Switzerland, 8 January 1999 --- The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is delighted to announce that Christopher Reeve, actor, director and President of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, will be Honorary Patron for this year's celebrations of the ICN centennial. "As a hero on screen and even more so in real life, Christopher Reeve has lent his celebrity and indomitable spirit in support of improved health and quality of life for all", said ICN President Kirsten Stallknecht. "Mr. Reeve understands, through personal experience, how nursing care is crucial to the recovery and maintenance of health. We are extremely proud to have him associated with nurses and nursing and to have him support our centennial celebrations. "

"Nurses have been pivotal to my own recovery and health. I know this is also true for millions around the world who are restored to health and comforted in illness by the caring, compassion and expertise of nurses," said Mr Reeve. " As Honorary Patron for the 100th birthday of the International Council of Nurses, I ask that we recognise the work of our nurses and thank them for their contribution in promoting good health in all of our communities."
Since its founding 1 July, 1899, the International Council of Nurses has represented nurses and nursing worldwide, advancing the profession and shaping health policy. ICN is the world's first and widest reaching international organisation for health professionals, representing millions of nurses in 118 member countries. ICN's centennial year celebrations aim to remind the world how in homes, work places, schools, hospitals, villages, refugee camps and many other settings, nurses promote the health and well-being of their communities, educate, tend to people in need and search for new ways to improve the health of humanity.
Distinguished actor and director Christopher Reeve has been a quadriplegic since his catastrophic injury that occurred during an equestrian event in 1995. But even during his difficult months of rehabilitation, Reeve used the international interest in his situation to take up the disability cause for others and to raise money for research into a cure. An activist and humanitarian throughout his adult life, Reeve has involved himself in many charities and causes relating to health, human rights, the arts and the environment. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the American Paralysis Foundation (http://www.apacure.org) and Vice Chairman of the National (US) Organisation on Disability. Reeve and his wife Dana act as President and Vice President of the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Mr Reeve's professional acting and directing career continues to draw critical and audience acclaim and his autobiography Still Me has touched the hearts of millions of readers.

Christopher Reeve, our centennial patron, with his head nurse Tracy Deluca RN BCA
The official inauguration of the ICN centennial celebrations will take place 28 January 1999, in Geneva, the world centre for international co-operation and humanitarian organisations and the site of ICN's corporate headquarters. The event includes a rare historical exhibition entitled One Hundred Years of Nurses Caring, which paints a portrait of the evolution of health care and the nursing profession over the last century.
The highlight of ICN's centennial will be the International Nursing Conference, to be held in London, UK, on 27 June-1 July, 1999. Nurses from across the globe will gather for this five-day event, hosted by the Royal College of Nursing. The conference will be addressed by international speakers including Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of the World Health Organisation, Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director, and Rear Admiral Julia Plotnick, former assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service.
Throughout its history, ICN has worked for and promoted policies, standards and conditions that allow nurses to practice their profession to the full extent of their education and ability and work towards better health for all. For further information please visit the ICN Web site http://www.icn.ch

For further information contact
Tel : (+41 22) 908 0100; fax : (+41 22) 908 0101;
Web site http://www.icn.ch

The ICN Story - 1899-1999 Against all odds, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) has survived and flourished for 100 years, held together by its own 'special glue' - made up of dedication to nursing professionalism and commitment to the international idea.
The International Council of Nurses was born and raised on the busy intersection of woman's rights, social progressivism and healthcare reform. Though the idea and fundamental necessity of nursing are as old as the family and the tribe, the introduction of organised professional nursing only became a reality during the late 19th century.It was in an milieu ofgreat social change that a handful of women took up this new dimension of nursing.
The nurses who founded ICN were also deeply engaged in the international women's movement. It was the intoxicating mixture of the fight for women's rights and the development oforganised nursing that brought together ICN's forward thinking founders; Ethel Gordon Fenwick (England), Lavinia Dock (USA) and Agnes Karll (Germany) and gave birth t o the world'sfirst international organisation for health professionals and for women.
Sowing the international seed
The 1893 World Congress of Representative Women, held at the Chicago World's Fair, was the catalyst for ICN's founding. It was therethat «the seed of the international nursing movement...so full of vitality, was then sown, » according to Ethel Fenwick . By 1899 the seed had germinated and Fenwick called upon nurses of various countriesto unite in an international nursing organisation. One year later the ICN constitution was approved, with Fenwick elected as president.
The vision of ICN
These visionary nurses saw ICN as an international federation of national nurses' organisations, headed by nurses, free of state control and representing only nurses.In 1904, when the five-year-old ICN convened in Berlin, the three countries--Germany, Great Britain and the United States-- ready for federation under the ICN Constitution, were joined by Australia. Soon nurses from as far away as Japan were attracted to this new idea and began attending ICN meetings. At this point ICNhad no funds, no office and sometimes painfully slow communication (mail and telegraph) among members. Participants used their own personal funds to attend meetings and conduct business, but nonetheless membership continued to grow.
Wars in Europe Cast Their Shadows
As the devastation of Europe at war in 1914-18 shocked the world and nurses mobilised to serve on the battlefields, nurses at the ICN, now headed by Hennie Tscherning of Denmark, could only just hold on and grieve for their lost and separated comrades. It wasn't until 1922 that Tscherning was able to convene ICN leaders in Copenhagen andto begin picking up the pieces of the organisation and its mission.
At this low point the next President, Sophie Mannerheim of Finland, proved to be the right leader for ICN. She forged links with international nurses while, at the same time, fighting off efforts by the League of Red Cross Societies to direct post-war nursing globally. Denmark's Christiane Reimann, who became the first paid ICN secretary in 1922, also played a crucial role. An accomplished nurse who spoke and wrote several languages, Reimann willingly dipped into her own funds to accomplish ICN goals, and she constantly travelled seeking to attract more national nurses' associations (NNAs) to join ICN. This stimulated many countries to establish educational programmes for nurses and to form NNAs, includingChina, who joined the ICN in 1922.
As the 1930s drew to a close it became obvious to most that war was again on the horizon. The German Nurses Association, a founding member of ICN, was disbanded by the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, as was the Italian NNA. In 1939, the ICN offices in London seemed vulnerable aswar broke out andHitler moved west. Then president Effie Taylor packed up and moved ICN records and office to her offices at Yale University in New Haven. Three years later ICN's London offices were destroyed by bombs. Throughoutthe war period ICN aided thousands of displaced nurse refugees by keeping records and assisting in their ability to practice in new locations.
The Post-war Surge
In 1947, ICN was able to once again convene an international nursing Congress, this time in Atlantic City, New Jersey,where the new President, Gerda Hojer of Sweden, welcomed 6,500 nurses. In a spirit of reunion and rejuvenation, ICN prepared itself for renewal. The membership committee reached out, seeking and reviewing membership applications fromNNAs in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. By 1957, ICN included 46 national associations with 17 countries in associate status. The new members illustrated the true internationalism of the ICN: Haiti, Korea, Turkey, Chile, Ceylon, Jamaica, Luxemborg, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad/Tobago, Zambia, Southern Rhodesia, Barbados, Columbia, Ethiopia, Iran, Liberia, Malaya, Panama, Uruguay, Yugoslavia-- and several countries separated by war re-joined-- Italy, Germany, Austria, and Japan.
Following its relocation to Geneva, Switzerland in 1965, ICN was able to further its international activity, with direct working links to the United Nations andthe World Health Organisation and a strengthened relationship to the International Labour Organisation, where ICN officially represented nurses on employment issues. Changing economies and conditions for women's work in regions of Africa, Asia, South Pacificand Latin America helped enhance nurses' ability to create national association,and thereby join ICN.
However, the Cold War deeply affected ICN. Neither Russia nor its Soviet bloc members joinedICN after the war. The NNAs that were previously members of the ICN federation--Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and, until 1957, Yugoslavia--now were reluctantly classified by the ICN Board as «temporarily inactive.»
Discrimination is Challenged
A long simmering issue finally came to a head in 1973 when the ICN insisted that the South African Nurses Association fully integrate its association and Board or face expulsion. The vote ona motion to expel South Africa, introduced by the Swedish Nurses Association and the Nurses Association of the Netherlands, was only avoided by the abrupt resignation of the South Africans. ICN had, after decades of debate, taken the painful but final step to eject one of its oldest member nations to show its revulsion against racism. Today, a large and inclusive South African nursing association, DENOSA, is a very active ICN member.
By 1989 when Asia's ICN President, Mo-Im Kim of Korea (currently Korea's Minister of Health), greeted 7,000 nurses atICN's 19th Quadrennial Conference in Seoul , the ICN federation counted 97 member countries, and when current president, Kirsten Stallknecht of Denmark took office in 1997, ICN membership had grown to include 115 countries.
Looking Ahead
As ICN moves forward into its second century, representing millions of nurses in 118 countries, nursing looks forward to a future as rich with possibilities as its heritage is in accomplishments. From Florence Nightingale's guiding light, through the wisdom of Virginia Henderson and on to the challenges and promise of tomorrow, the International Council of Nurses remains actively committed to the service of the world's nursing profession and better health for all.
For further information please contact Nancy Vatré at + 41 22 908 0100 or visit our Web site at http://www.icn.ch

The World in 1899
The ICN was created at the turn of the last century, a period of tremendous creativity and social ferment. The end of the last century and the beginning of the 20th gave birth to unprecedented advances in social and political development, human rights, health science and practice. It was in this surge of progress towards a new future that the ICN took its initial bold steps as the first international organisation for health professionals, and for women. In marking the 100th anniversary of the organisation it is useful to also recall some of the other significant events that marked the year 1899:

Berta Von Suttner of Austria organised the first International Peace Conference in The Haig, an effort which later saw as one of the first recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize (1905)

Mohandas Ghandi was a young lawyer practising law in South Africa

Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet on the stage of the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris

Medical researchers first distinguished blood types among human beings

New Zealand had become the first country in the world where women attained the vote nationally.

A little-known artist, Pablo Picasso, was about to begin his now-famous blue period.

The scientist Martinus Bijerinck had just discovered the existence of viruses.

Marie and Pierre Curie made the discovery of radium and polonium

Guillermo Marconi was still devising the techniques for wireless communication which he would first demonstrate two years later.

Puccini first staged Tosca in the Milan opera house.

The Boer war was declared and would run its course for another three years.

Czar Nicholas II of Russia called for the first International Conference on Limitations of Armaments

Eugene Debs founded the Socialist Party of America

Richard Strauss, and his daring waltz innovation, was the pre-eminent musical influence in Europe

J.J. Thompson discovered the electron, leading to further advances in unravelling the mysteries of the structure of atoms.

The International Inter-parliamentary Union, a precursor of the UN, was founded in Paris.

France had just enacted an 11-hour work day.

ICN Centennial Conference Overview
Opening Ceremony Speech - ICN President Kirsten Stallknecht
Reverend Dr. John Sentamu
Speech of Dr Gro Bruntland, DG WHO
Speech of Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF
Closing Address - 30 June 1999 - Given by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal
Centennial Conference Press Releases
Margaret Hilson, Recipient International Achievement Award- Presentation
Margaret Hilson Press Release
Centennial conference photos
Video ICN history and nursing
Contact : Danielle Turin

In an atmosphere of joy and pride, more than 4 500 nurses from every region of the world celebrated their common commitment to humanity and health, during an emotional and spectacular conference opening ceremony in London's historic Royal Albert Hall.
Returning to the city of its 1899 founding, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) rallied nurses of all nations to the common cause of leading societies toward better health. "One hundred years ago, a group of daring women were drawn together around a mere idea - a dream - that nursing could become a force for social progress. Not only in their own societies, but from every society on earth, dedicated to the most fundamental of all human rights: the right to health and well-being," said ICN president Kirsten Stallknecht in a stirring and inspirational opening address.
Conference participants heard major international speakers and featured over 1 500 papers and presentations on a wide range of topics including child health, cancer acre, mental health, care of older people and new technology.
The ICN Council of National representatives debated resolutions on the role of nurses in providing care to dying patients and their families (submitted by the French national nurses association) and restructuring the nursing profession in a country traumatised by war (submitted by the Lebanese national nurses association).
South African nurses discussed the development of the country's multi-ethnic nursing association, established post-apartheid, and new guidelines on children and pain, written in collaboration with young people with first hand experience of pain management, were launched.

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