Nursing and midwifery will be in the spotlight throughout 2020 as it has been declared the international year of the nurse and midwife by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Florence Nightingale bicentenary celebrations are also taking place globally. In 2019 we witnessed a centenary of nursing regulation: on 23 December 1919 the Nurses Registration Act was passed.
Seen as the UK's most trusted profession, nursing, in a variety of roles, impacts the lives of people and communities everywhere in a number of profound ways. Our professional regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, constantly reviews professional standards, ensuring those on the professional register provide contemporary, evidence-based care that contributes to positive outcomes for patients and those who use our services.
The year 2020 also sees the 200th celebration of Florence Nightingale's birth. Nightingale—leader, icon and pioneer—was born in 1820 and died aged 90 in 1910. She is seen as the philosophical founder of modern nursing, as well as a female icon, a healthcare pioneer, a competent and respected researcher, statistician, analyst, an innovator and entrepreneur, and a leader. Throughout 2020 there will be celebrations of the legacy she left. Nightingale inspired, and continues to inspire, nurses globally. Her work has also informed mathematicians, architects, public health workers and activists.
Florence Nightingale respected patients regardless of their social class, disabilities, hygiene or occupation, and she insisted that a real nurse would abandon any class differences
Florence Nightingale respected patients regardless of their social class, disabilities, hygiene or occupation, and she insisted that a real nurse would abandon any class differences. The sick and infirm, she noted, require special constructive arrangements. They are not paupers; they are poor in affliction. ‘Society owes them every care for recovery’ (Nightingale as cited by Nelson and Rafferty, 2010). Nightingale's influence on nursing continues to this day. She personified many of the important ideas that are key to nursing today—values, vision and voice, the pre-cursor in many ways to the 6Cs (Department of Health, 2012). Nightingale's legacy still pervades the profession today, informing contemporary nursing that has its roots embedded in Nightingale principles.
Side by side with military men and doctors, Miss Nightingale instituted a number of fundamental activities that would reduce morbidity and mortality at home and overseas. Practice nurses are today standing toe to toe with general practitioners and others in ensuring that services to communities are fit-for-purpose, accessible, value for money and evidence-based.
The underlying inequalities that lie at the root of collective differences are seen day in and day out by practice nurses up and down the country. This has continued for decades; the upshot is leaving individuals and communities ignored and side lined. Practice nurses are at the front of gathering data and providing persuasive arguments so as to instigate, guide and evaluate public policy that will fundamentally alter individuals' and communities' quality of life.
Like Nightingale, practice nurses do not withdraw or abandon a cause, they take on those persistent, tenacious social problems that so many of them see in the communities that they serve. Raising health awareness, gaining public attention and taking action creates the basis of reform, and this is the lifeblood of any practice nurse's work.
The history of practice nursing has not been written. It will continue be in the making as the role and function of the practice nurse responds dynamically and effectively to the needs of the people it has the privilege to serve. The needs of the people it serves are continually changing.
As a passionate statistician, Nightingale conducted extensive research and analysis. She published over 200 reports and pamphlets on a wide range of issues including hygiene, hospital administration and design, midwifery and health care for the poor. She was concerned with the most basic needs of human beings and all aspects of the environment locally and globally. Williams (2008), however, suggests that much of her reputation is based on the myths created by the popular press at the time of the Crimean war.
‘We have to envisage our role beyond nursing and see ourselves as health broadcasters and social media communicators, transforming health and social care with others and carrying forward Nightingale's vision of social action, so as to create a healthy world.’
Nightingale was a nurse, an educator, administrator, communicator, statistician and an environmental activist: these attributes can be clearly identified in the NMC's Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses (NMC, 2018). Nightingale was ahead of her time; she began to write in the 1880s that it would take 100–150 years before educated and experienced nurses would arrive to change the healthcare system. Nurses of today are this generation of 21st-century Nightingale's and health representatives. We have to envisage our role beyond nursing and see ourselves as health broadcasters and social media communicators, transforming health and social care with others and carrying forward Nightingale's vision of social action, so as to create a healthy world.
The first ever International Year of the Nurse and Midwife is being held in 2020 providing a ‘once in a generation opportunity’ to showcase the professions, and to raise the status and profile of nurses and midwives globally. The dedication of this year to the cause was approved by leaders at the World Health Assembly (WHA). Both professions are invaluable to the health of people everywhere. Without nurses and midwives, it will not be possible to achieve the WHO sustainable development goals or universal health coverage. The WHO recognises the crucial role of nurses and midwives on a daily basis. While 2020 will be dedicated to highlighting the enormous contributions that nurses and midwives make, it is also important to ensure that the shortage of these two professions across the globe is addressed.
It could be suggested a profession's fascination with a role model who died over 100 years ago will hold back progress, but I could not disagree more with this. Nightingale's words and work still inform contemporary nursing. We must, however, as we celebrate Nightingale's bicentenary and International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, acknowledge the outstanding contribution made by every contemporary nurse and midwife locally, nationally and internationally.