WISH and Nursing Now Challenge to help position nurses at the forefront of change

Tribune News Network Doha The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) is hosting a virtual event in collaboration with Nursing Now Challenge, a global in...

Tribune News NetworkDohaThe World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) is hosting a virtual event in collaboration with Nursing Now Challenge, a global initiative to promote leadership in nursing, on June 22 at 4pm AST. Titled ‘Nurses at the forefront of change: challenging the status quo’, the event will facilitate a discussion on the role nurses will need to play to ensure fair access to healthcare in a fast-changing world. It will also discuss their role in helping to tackle climate change and how best to incorporate digital technology into their work, as well as offer an opportunity for early-career nurse leaders to engage in conversation and debate with report authors and other high-level policymakers. The Chief Nursing Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO), Elizabeth Iro, will deliver a keynote address, and attendees will also hear from Prof Sir Michael Marmot, professor of Epidemiology at University College London (UCL), director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and past president of the World Medical Association. One of the sessions will explore the themes and outcomes of WISH’s most recently published report, ‘Nurses for Health Equity: Guidelines for Tackling the Social Determinants of Health’, which was launched earlier this year, ahead of the 74th World Health Assembly. The report focuses on what can practically be done to reduce inequalities in health, offers clear guidance to empower nurses to take positive action, and identifies where investments need to be made to develop effective nursing leaders who can advocate for change as valued members of multisector and multidisciplinary teams. Other sessions will include a discussion on two new research papers, released by The BMJ (The British Medical Journal) as part of a collection for WISH on June 15 and titled ‘Nursing’s pivotal role in global climate action’ and ‘How the nursing profession should adapt for a digital future’.These papers are foundational to two brand new Nursing Now Challenges, as part of the Nursing Now Challenge Global Solutions Initiative. The challenges will call on nurses around the world to propose innovative ways to put nurses at the centre of efforts to combat climate change, as well as design an initiative that helps them better navigate an increasingly digitised world. WISH will be offering a prize to the winner of each category and will be inviting the nurses behind the best initiatives to speak at a future WISH event.Sultana Afdhal, CEO, WISH, said: “We’ve learnt that, as promoters of health innovation, nurses frequently offer a fresh perspective to finding innovative ways to improve the delivery of care. Therefore, it is imperative that we make rapid investments in the empowerment of nurses, enabling them to become leaders and contribute toward health policymaking.“When it comes to combating the climate emergency and addressing the needs of healthcare systems that are ever more reliant on digital technologies, we believe that nurses have immense potential to transform not only how we approach healthcare but also how we tackle some of the biggest challenges currently facing the healthcare industry.”WISH, Qatar Foundation’s global health initiative, has been at the epicentre of promoting the empowerment of nursing in Qatar through the establishment of the Nursing Now Qatar campaign in 2018. Since then, in collaboration with local and global partners, WISH has hosted several leadership courses, symposiums and workshops with the goal of having the voices of nurses heard when it comes to healthcare policymaking. In 2018, WISH also published its report titled ‘Nursing and Universal Health Coverage (UHC)’, which describes how strengthening nursing and midwifery as part of the wider health workforce will enable the rapid, high quality, and cost-effective scaling up of UHC.To see the programme agenda and register for the upcoming event, visit www.wish.org.qa/wish-webinar/