Make the most of your time at the ICN Congress by having all the event information in the palm of your hand!

A mobile app is now available for downloading from the Google Playstore (for Androids) and from the AppStore (for iPads and iPhones).  The app gives you access to the Congress programme, floor plans, exhibition area, and much, much more.  Browse the schedule and select which sessions you want to attend. Check out the list of speakers and bookmark the ones you want to see. Explore the vast list of exhibitors and find them quickly in the venue maps. And stay informed through the integrated news feeds. We highly recommend that you download the free app before arriving in Melbourne in order to start planning your personalised Congress experience!

Connecting Nurses*, an initiative for nurses developed by Sanofi in partnership with ICN and others, has launched Information shareapy™, a unique online patient care platform built by nurses for nurses, for the benefit of patients and their families.

Information shareapy™ is a repository of practice tips, advice and best practice information gleaned by nurses in practice to share with one another and enhance quality patient care. Nurses from around the world are invited to participate in the international community. By uploading and sharing links on the platform, every nurse can make patient support tools and materials available to their peers.

The Information shareapy™ international community is made up of nurses. The platform is password protected and the professional status of each member is required to protect this professional space.

In addition to their individual participation, nurses can choose to follow Key Opinion Leaders representing ICN¹, SIDIIEF², NPHF³ and AFDET⁴, or active community members. They can also track particular topics which help in organising and sharing relevant content quickly.

Sanofi and its partnering nurse organizations thank every nurse for their kind input, their personal contributions and feedback, and their support in making Information shareapy™ a living and growing platform, serving our common interest of contributing to constantly enhancing and evolving patient care through innovative digital communication.

ICN¹ : International Council of Nurses
SIDIIEF² : Secrétariat International Des Infirmières et Infirmiers de l’Espace Francophone
NPHF³ : Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation
AFDET⁴ : Association Française pour le Développement de l’Education Thérapeutique

New research by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research shows that patient deaths after common surgeries decrease when hospitals hire more nurses with Baccalaureate-level degrees.

As reported in the March issue of Health Affairs, the researchers found. That if all 134 Pennsylvania hospitals involved in the study had increased the percentage of their nurses with four-year degrees by 10 percentage points, the lives of about 500 patients who had undergone general, vascular, or orthopedic surgery might have been saved,

Less than half (45%) of the nurses in the USA have baccalaureate degrees, according to the most recent data available (2008).

While the study did not pinpoint why more patients survive surgeries, previous work in the Center found that better-prepared nurses offer higher levels of surveillance of patients, noticing subtle shifts in their patients' conditions that can lead to death from complications while there was still time to intervene.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,. "Baccalaureate nursing programs encompass all of the course work taught in associate degree and diploma programs plus a more in-depth treatment of the physical and social sciences, nursing research, public and community health, nursing management, and the humanities. The additional course work enhances the student's professional development, prepares the new nurse for a broader scope of practice, and provides the nurse with a better understanding of the cultural, political, economic, and social issues that affect patients and influence health care delivery. "

A study by Mireia Fàbregas, MD, of the Institut Català de la Salut, in Barcelona, Spain, and her colleagues has been published in the online version of the Journal of Advanced Nursing on 21 March 2013. The findings suggest that nurses may be able to take on some of the care generally provided by physicians.

In a trial involving 1,461 adult patients who requested same day appointments to see either nurses trained to respond to problems with low complexity or to see general practitioners, the investigators found that nurses successfully solved 86.3% of the cases.

The study was conducted in 38 general practices in Catalonia, Spain, and 142 general practitioners and 155 nurses participated. The investigators measured how well patients' symptoms resolved and how satisfied patients were two weeks after the visit.

Patients who saw nurses were equally satisfied with their visit as those who saw doctors. When patients were asked about their preferences regarding which professional they would like to visit if a similar health problem arose again, more than 40% of patients in each group expressed indifference.

"This study could help to reduce resistance to change in both physicians and nurses, as well as in the general population, generating confidence in the care provided by nurses," said Dr. Fàbregas. She and her co-authors noted that having nurses solve acute diseases of low complexity could help improve overall health care efficiency.

Sources:
Waknine Y (2013). Nurses and Doctors Equally Competent for Simple Ailments, Medscape Medical News, 21 March 2013.
Medical News Today. The Public Can Be Confident In The Care Nurses Provide, Comparable To That Of Doctors For Resolving Health Problems Of Low Complexity, 24 March 2013.

 “A Focus on Nursing and Health Promotion"

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the ICN Wellness Tree photo competition entitled "A Focus on Nursing and Health Promotion". The contest aims to collect and share photographs representing culturally relevant images of healthy behaviour and how nurses are actively promoting healthy lifestyles to address the global crisis of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

How can you participate?

Participation is exclusive to nurses and nursing students from around the world. Submission deadline is midnight Central European Time (CET) on Saturday 6 April 2013. Full information on the terms and conditions and how to participate is available at www.growyourwellness.com/wellness-tree-photo-contest

We are looking for photographs that include:

• Nurse-led outreach campaigns for healthy living in your community/region
• Nurses promoting healthy living via nursing interventions, tools and activities
• Healthy nutrition in your community/country
• Easily accessible physical activity in your community/country
• Examples of people taking the right steps toward healthy living

What are the contest prizes?

Prizes for the top three submissions include:

• A 50% reduction on the ICN 2013 Melbourne Congress registration fee
• Exhibit of winning photographs at the Wellness Tree booth during ICN Quadrennial Congress

Prizes for the top 10 submissions include:

• A Florence Nightingale bear and donation made in the winner’s name to the Girl Child Education Fund
• Posting of the photograph on the Wellness Tree Website www.growyourwellness.com

We hope you will submit your entry and participate in our quest to encourage a healthy and long life for everyone! Find out more here www.growyourwellness.com/wellness-tree-photo-contest

ICN believes that nurses in all countries have the right to migrate as a function of choice, regardless of their motivation. We also acknowledge the potential benefits of migration, including learning opportunities and the rewards of multicultural practice. However, it is clear that international migration may negatively affect health care quality in regions or countries seriously depleted of their nursing workforce. ICN believes that migration is a symptom of dysfunctional health systems and condemns the practise of recruiting nurses to countries where authorities have not engaged in human resources planning or addressed problems which cause nurses to leave the profession and discourage them from returning. (Read more…)

The International Centre on Nurse Migration (ICNM) was launched in 2005 by ICN and the CGFNS International as a much needed resource for centralized information about foreign educated nurses. The Centre serves as a global resource for the development, promotion and dissemination of research, policy and information on nurse migration, including screening and workflow integration.  The ICNM provides resources such as ebriefs, fact sheets and commissioned papers on the topic of international nurse migration.

In addition you can access resources on migration from the ICN website:

ICN Fact Sheets

• International Centre on Nurse Migration
• International Nurse Migration & Remittances

ICN position statements

• Nurse retention and migration
• Ethical nurse recruitment
• Health services for migrants, refugees and displaced persons

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, ICN calls for the development and integration of measures to ensure the protection of nurses in the workplace and to address the stress and burn-out experienced by nurses working in high burden areas. 

Nurses are at the core of health systems everywhere, but since HIV and AIS have reached pandemic proportions, many health systems are at breaking point. In sub-Saharan Africa, nurses and other health care workers are bearing the burden of this pandemic and are overstressed and undervalued The widespread emergence of other infectious disease such as tuberculosis (TB), and the significant prevalence of Hepatitis B and C has increased the potential for occupational exposure by nurses/midwives, necessitating appropriate supplies and protective personal equipment and consistent use of standard precautions.  In addition, the intensive nursing care demands of persons with HIV and the real or perceived risks and stressful work environment, can have a detrimental impact on the profession, including burnout, a high drop-out rate and fewer recruits.

ICN’s Wellness Centres for Health Care Workers aim to address the severe health care worker crisis through attention to the health, wellbeing and capacity of the whole health workforce.  Services include stress management, PEP, HIV counselling, testing and treatment to Hepatitis B vaccination, training opportunities and home-based care. These centres are now up and running in Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia. 

ICN Publications on HIV/AIDS:

ICN Guidelines on Reducing the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Nursing and Midwifery Personnel

ICN position statement on HIV infection and AIDS

ICN position statement on Reducing the impact of HIV infection and AIDS on nursing and midwifery personnel

ICN fact sheet on HIV/AIDS in the European Union

ICN fact sheet on Mobilising Nurses for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care

Research demonstrates that amongst health personnel, nursing staff are most at risk of workplace violence. Traditionally, many cultures have covertly accepted physical violence, sexual harassment or verbal abuse against women although a violation of their human rights. Also, nurses often passively accept abuse and violence as “part of the job” – an attitude sometimes shared by the public and the judiciary.

Under-reporting of workplace violence has hampered the development and implementation of effective strategies to reduce violence in the workplace. Nurses have been expected to cope with violence, although few programmes train nursing personnel to identify potentially dangerous situations and develop effective mechanisms to deal with aggression.

ICN has produced Guidelines on Coping with violence in the workplace and has a position statement on Abuse and violence against nursing personnel

Other resources:

• UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.
• Managing Gender-based Violence Programmes in Emergencies
• Addressing Violence against Women and Girls in Sexual and Reproductive Health Services
• Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice
• United Nations In-depth study on all forms of violence against women

• What is the Girl Child Education Fund? The Girl Child Education Fund (GCEF) supports the primary and secondary schooling of girls under the age of 18 in developing countries whose nurse parent or parents have died, paying for fees, uniforms, shoes and books. We work in partnership with member national nurses associations to ensure that the money goes directly to education costs. Learn more...
• Why is the GCEF concentrating on girls?

Currently there are 62 million girls out of school worldwide. Many will not be able to go to school unless we can help.  The education of girls has a significant impact on every area of a woman’s life.  According to UNICEF, “educating girls for six years or more drastically and consistently improves their prenatal care, postnatal care and childbirth survival rates.  Read more...

Educating mothers also greatly cuts the death rate of children under five. Educated girls have higher self-esteem, are more likely to avoid HIV infection, violence and exploitation, and to spread good health and sanitation practices to their families and throughout their communities. And an educated mother is more likely to send her children to school.”[1]  An educated woman also has a better chance of earning an income herself, which has a positive effect on her family, and therefore on society as a whole.  

Educating girls means better health

• Improved family planning
• Lower infant mortality: every day over 2700 children under the age of five will die needlessly because their mothers were denied an education earlier in life
• Fewer maternal deaths in childbirth
• Lower HIV/AIDS infection rates: rates are doubled among young people who do not finish primary school

 Educating girls means better futures

• Greater participation in the work force and increased family incomes: for each additional year a girl is in school, her wages as an adult rise by approximately 15 percent
• Greater chance that their own children will be educated: children whose mothers have no education are more than twice as likely to be out of school as children whose mothers have some education

What do the girls have to say? 

ICN has received many letters from the girls who have graduated from GCEF programme. Here are a few excerpts:

“Besides providing education, [the GCEF] gives parental comfort to the orphan girls and gives them hope to face another day in their lives and also wipe away their tears.” – Uganda

“Completing school has helped me have a sense of direction in my life. It has helped me realize that I can be an important person to the society.” - Zambia

“Finally I feel guilty no more; I use the school facilities at peace. There is nothing as liberating as free conscience. This programme has opened up countless opportunities for me like participating in the Science Congress competitions, exhibiting my poetic powers at the festivals and above all has inspired me to be the academic giant I wished for.” – Kenya

“Personally, the GCEF has come to my recue.  When my mother died I thought my life had come to an end since she was the only one responsible for bringing me up, including my education.  But the existence of the GCEF has come to make my future brighter since I have now completed my high school education and am now pursuing my studies in financial accounting.” - Swaziland

ICN position statements on

• Rights of children
• Elimination of substance abuse in young people
• Child labour
• Elimination of female genital mutilation

ICN fact sheets on

• Childhood Nutrition
• ICN on the Girl Child
• Maternal and Infant Nutrition
• Prevention of Child Abuse
• Safeguarding the Childhood of Children

Years of research show that safer nurse staffing levels directly improve patient safety, health outcomes and quality of care, yet in Canada, as in many countries around the world, nurses continue to experience excessive workloads and patients and families suffer as a result.

Written by Dr Louise Berry, RN, PhD, University of Saskatchewan, Nursing Workload and Patient Care outlines recommendation from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union (CFNU) in order to advise policy makers, decision makers, elected officials and health care executives on the current state of evidence with respect to safe staffing and improved patient outcomes.   The full version is available on the CFNU website.

With the theme “Working together out of poverty”, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty promotes awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries.  Poverty and poor health go hand-in-hand, with the poor sharing an unequal burden of ill health. What can we as nurses do? We know that investing in education, health care and sound social policy can improve health outcomes. We also know that health is an asset, thus promoting and protecting it must be a key concern. This means that we must be sure we are educated about the determinants of health, about empowerment, and about working with communities and vulnerable groups to address their unique needs.

Nurses are the most trusted of health professions. We can do much to work with and on behalf of poor people. We work with them to ensure that their voices are heard, that they are included in decisions concerning them, and that the inequalities of access, employment, services, gender, ethnicity and race are addressed. Working side-by-side with clients, service providers, community leaders, policy makers and politicians we can do our part to reduce the plague of poverty.

Relevant ICN publications:

• IND Kit 2004
• ICN position statement on Publicly funded accessible health services
• ICN fact sheet on ICN on Poverty and Health: Breaking the Link

Other resources:

• Urbanization, gender and urban poverty: Paid work and unpaid carework in the city (UNFPA 2012)
• Poverty and social exclusion in the WHO European Region: health systems respond. (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2010).
• Protecting the Poor: A microinsurance compendium, volume II (ILO 2012)

Obesity is spreading at an alarming rate, not just in industrialised countries but also in developing countries, where it co-exists with malnutrition.  The growing number of overweight and obese children at the national and international level is a real concern, increasing their risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes later in life.  Nurses have an ideal opportunity to enhance health-promoting activities in order to reduce the risks of being overweight or obese.

ICN encourages nurses to promote healthy family lifestyle patterns across the lifespan. For example, the encouragement of breast-feeding, physical activity, regular meals, and nutrition and weight counselling are important interventions that help reduce the risk of obesity at all stages of human development. ICN’s Grow Your Wellness website provides a variety of educational, assessment, intervention and advocacy materials to support health professionals engaging in prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) -

Nurses should help the public understand that obesity is predominantly a social-environmental disease. Nurses can create public awareness of the multiple and changing determinants of health that affect becoming overweight or obese. They can identify, offer and refer to obesity prevention programmes and policies, as well as play a role in programme and policy monitoring and evaluation.

Relevant ICN publications:

• IND 2010 Delivering quality; serving communities: Nurses leading chronic care
• ICN on Obesity: Creating Public Awareness of a Social Environmental Disease

ICN position statement on Reducing environmental and lifestyle related health risks

Other resources:

Nursing in Practice Obesity Resource Centre

On International Day for Disaster Reduction, ICN celebrates the work of nurses in reducing the impact of disasters around the world.  Every year, people all over the world are affected by natural disasters from earthquakes to floods to hurricanes and wildfires.  As one of the most trusted professions in the world, nurses are uniquely positioned to provide information regarding disaster preparedness to the community. Additionally, their special knowledge, skills, and abilities make them key providers of disaster relief services, especially in relation to meeting the health needs of victims and workers. 

ICN encourages and works with international networks, such as WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, coordinating the expertise and skills needed to keep the international community constantly alert to the threat of disease outbreaks, and ready to respond. 

ICN is a member of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Global Health Cluster, a United Nations initiative led by the WHO to improve the coordination of disaster relief.  Within the cluster, ICN is a founding member of a sub-group focused on capacity building among national stakeholders.

ICN has developed a Position Statement on Nurses and Disaster Preparedness, setting forth a framework for the role of national nurses associations in disaster preparedness and response.  This includes the NNA role in coordination of response and recovery efforts.

ICN has a Disaster Response Network which provides useful information and resources for those interested in joining disaster relief efforts or improving relevant skills.  In addition, we have several fact sheets on this topic and, in partnership with the World Health Organization, we have published Disaster Nursing Competencies which aim to strengthen the essential capacities of nurses to deliver disaster and emergency services within an ever-changing world with on-going health threats and disasters.

Other resources

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, ICN calls for the integration of mental disorders into the dialogue on NCDs.  The theme of this year’s campaign is “Depression: a global crisis”. As part of this initiative, ICN has partnered with the Dialogue on Diabetes and Depression (DDD) – a global initiative involving several organisations - and the Association for Improvement of Mental Health Programmes (AIMHP) to implement the African Nurse Training Programme (ANTP) to improve awareness, recognition and management of co-morbid diabetes and depression. (Read more…).

With the goal of improving the awareness, recognition and management of comorbid depression and diabetes, ANTP will provide international healthcare experts to support nurses in the above-mentioned African countries to meet this challenge.
The progamme is composed of ten modules that ‘unpack’ the comorbid relationship between diabetes and depression and focus on assessment, clinical management, health education and the environment of health care.

Relevant ICN publications:

Mental Health Nursing – Trends and Issues

ICN Position statement on Mental health

ICN fact sheets on:

• Mental Health
• Developing Nursing Resources for Mental Health
• Mental Health: Tackling the Challenges

A focus on ageing populations is on the agenda of governmental and non-governmental policy makers everywhere.  A demographic revolution is underway throughout the world. The world's population of people 60 years of age and older has doubled since 1980 and is forecast to reach 2 billion by 2050 (WHO 2012). A growing population of older adults will place increased demand on a range of health services - health promotion, illness prevention, rehabilitation, acute and chronic care, and end-of-life care.   We will need more staff for home-based and nursing home care.  Meanwhile, just as the general population is ageing, so too are its health workers – nurses, physicians, pharmacists and others.

As nurses, we must concern ourselves with breaking down the barriers older persons may encounter with regard to access to health services; influencing how resources are allocated for programmes and services; pushing for relevant transportation options and for educational programmes that help older persons adopt healthier lifestyles – for example, through smoking cessation, sound nutrition and regular exercise.  We can also help safeguard the safety and security of older people; and advocate for older individuals’ human rights, including access to health, security and participation in society.

Relevant ICN publications:

Managing the Multi-Generational Workforce: Managerial and Policy Implications

ICN position statement on Nursing care of the older person

ICN fact sheets on:

• An Ageing Nursing Workforce
• Dementia
• Elder Abuse
• ICN on Healthy Ageing: A Public Health and Nursing Challenge
• Patient Safety: Medication Use and the Ageing Population
• Nutrition for Older Adults
• Osteoporosis: The Silent Thief
• Shingles (Herpes Zoster)
  

Other resources:

Dementia: a public health priority (WHO 2012)

Age-friendly Primary Health Care (PHC) Centres Toolkit (WHO 2008)

Global age-friendly cities: a guide (WHO 2007)

GoldenWorkers: a project which aims to identify emerging technologies and socio-economic trends, new models of extending professional active life and novel application scenarios in the area of ICT for active ageing at work.

This year the theme for World Heart Day is cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention among women and children.  To highlight the importance of a healthy heart, ICN invites you to visit our Grow Your Wellness website which provides a variety of educational, assessment, intervention and advocacy materials to support health professionals engaging in prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) - namely diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, some cancers and chronic respiratory diseases.

Cardiovascular disease is one of several non-communicable diseases which are the leading cause of mortality in the world, representing 63% of deaths annually, 25% of these premature.  But NCDs are largely preventable, by means of effective interventions that tackle the main risk factors: tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol. Addressing the NCD crisis requires a focus on wellness and disease prevention. Grow Your Wellness resources focus on effective interventions to share knowledge and support people in making behavioral changes that address these risk factors and lead to healthier lifestyles and improved health.

As a founding member of the World Health Professions Alliance, ICN is also promoting WHPA’s Health Improvement Scorecard which is designed to:

• Educate individuals on how to improve their health through positive behaviour and lifestyle changes.
• Empower individuals to work with their health professionals to establish personal health goals and to track their progress over time.

The Health Improvement Action plan enables individuals and their health professionals to establish mutually agreed goals so as to improve both lifestyle/ behavioural and metabolic/biometric risk factors over time.

Relevant ICN Publications

Lowering Cholesterol through Nurse Case Management
ICN on Obesity: Creating Public Awareness of a Social Environmental Disease
Women’s health
Informed patients
Women and Stroke
Childhood Nutrition
Maternal and Infant Nutrition
IND 2010 Delivering quality; serving communities: Nurses leading chronic care

To celebrate World Heart Day, why not buy a White Heart badge in support of the GCEF.  The white heart is the universal symbol for nursing. It is meant to characterize the caring, knowledge and humanity that infuse the work and spirit of nursing. The white heart is also a unifying symbol for nurses globally. The White Heart badge can be purchased online at the ICN eshop.  All proceeds from the sales of the White Heart badge will go to the ICN's Florence Nightingale International Foundation in support of the Girl Child Education Fund.

Ensuring a Positive Practice Environment: Occupational Safety and Health for Health Worker Productivity.
This joint ICN/CapacityPlus technical brief outlines ways to make health workers' safety a higher-level policy issue and shows how to create working environments that prioritize occupational health.

Health workers are adversely affected by numerous occupational safety and health (OSH) hazards they face on the job. Effective OSH measures contribute to national workforce health and productivity, but only 5%-10% of workers in developing countries have adequate OSH services.

The technical brief is available as an interactive online version on www.capacityplus.org/technical-brief-4/ and as a PDF: www.capacityplus.org/files/resources/ensuring-positive-practice-environment-occupational-safety-health-worker-productivity.pdf

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