ICN's UNGA 80 side event elevated nurse leadership in global health policy

Held in partnership with New York University’s Rory Myers College of Nursing, the International Council of Nurses’ (ICN) side event at the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 80) brought a week of impactful nursing advocacy to a powerful close.

The event capped a UNGA week where the presence and impact of nurses were more prominent than ever on the global stage.

Titled “Shaping Global Health Policy Through Nursing Leadership: Partnerships and Solutions for a Healthier World”, and sponsored by TruMerit and Johnson & Johnson, the event showcased the strength of collaboration and the power of nursing to advance global health for all. The session began with a welcome from ICN and Tia Gilmartin of NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing followed by presentations by ICN CEO Howard Catton and ICN's immediate past President, Dr Pamela Cipriano, who made powerful cases for investing in nursing as the path to achieving all health goals, including universal health coverage (UHC), and called on all nurses to work together as advocates.

Speaking at the event, Howard Catton reflected on the significance of nursing and health at this year’s UNGA:

“Our successful event was a fitting finale for a UNGA with a strong health focus. We were happy to see both non-communicable diseases and mental health high on UNGA’s agenda. ICN was present at the Fourth High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases (HLM4) and involved in discussions with a range of partners. We were pleased to hear government and international health leaders recognize that to address non-communicable diseases, the biggest killer of people around the world, a strong health workforce is absolutely essential.

‘We welcomed the strong support for the HLM4 Declaration, and look forward to seeing this vitally important document approved as soon as possible by the UN. But we also need to be able to turn the Declaration commitments into action. We know that nurses and the health workforce are a ‘best buy’ for addressing NCDs, and the insights from our side event only confirmed that we simply cannot achieve the world’s NCD targets without investing in the world’s nursing workforce.”

Dr Gill Adynski, ICN’s US-based Policy Analyst and a key member of ICN’s delegation at UNGA, described the event as a high point in a week that raised the nursing profile globally, saying:

“Our session united leaders from education, regulation, from government, from service and significant nursing organizations, who all came together to reinforce the key message that the global health agenda is a nursing agenda. Whether it's addressing non-communicable diseases, the rising mental health issues, the health impacts of climate change, conflicts, humanitarian crisis, ageing populations, the growth in health demands around the world — all of these challenges require the world’s 30 million nurses, the largest and most trusted health profession. Collaboration is essential; nurses everywhere must stand together to ensure our collective voice is heard and drives meaningful change.”

The event’s speakers featured leading voices from across major organizations and research institutions, who shared insights and strategies for collaboratively advancing nursing leadership in global health. These included:

• Dr Allison P Squires (NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing), who emphasized the importance of building and using global workforce data to inform health decisions, highlighting that nurses must lead these efforts.
• Dr Clifton Kenon (NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing), who discussed the need to build data collection capacity at country and global levels to empower nurses, emphasizing that nursing data should not be limited to high-income countries.
• Dr Susan Michaels-Strasser (Mailman School of Public Health, ICAP at Columbia University), who highlighted the challenges nurses face on the frontlines of health crises and called for systemic reforms to ensure workplace safety and resilience.
• Dr. Connie Sobon Sensor (League of Women Voters, Global NGO Executive Committee), who shared strategies for amplifying nursing’s voice and influence, reminding attendees that all of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected with health.
• Dr. Peter Preziosi (TruMerit), who outlined how nursing organizations can bridge the gap between practice and policy and emphasized the importance of data-driven advocacy in amplifying the voices of NGOs.
• Dr. Patricia Sharpnack (National League for Nursing, Ursuline College), who focused on the need to embed policy and leadership training into nursing education, preparing future nurses to lead in times of unprecedented global challenges.
• Jerry Ouner (Sigma Nursing), who shared impactful UN advocacy efforts, from addressing tuberculosis to preparing for climate-related disasters.
• Natalie Mrak (Global Health Equity J&J), who highlighted work to champion nurses to advance community-centered care and health equity.

The event ended with a strong commitment to accelerate collaboration across global health and a call to action for governments to invest in nursing and empower the profession to lead.

For more information on the key messages ICN brought to UNGA 80, see here, and watch the video from Howard Catton at NYU here.