International Nurses' Day on Wednesday 12 May – the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth – is a time for reflection but also a day of celebration of the essential role of the nurse. This year, as we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I think it is even more important to pause to think about our roles as nurses wherever we are in the UK. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) announce a theme for International Nurses' Day each year: the theme for 2021 is ‘Nurses: A voice to lead’, with a sub-theme of ‘A vision for future healthcare’ (ICN, 2020).
General practice has had to adapt to the pandemic and the seismic shift in care delivery as we have moved to more remote consultations, setting up hot hubs, managing the impact of the pandemic on patients, continuing to deliver essential services to our patients and leading the COVID-19 vaccination programme roll out. This shift continues to have a huge impact on the work of general practice nurses (GPNs), but we have risen to the challenge through our knowledge, our quest for providing high quality care, our ability to lead and manage teams, and our compassion for patients. GPNs have shown their ability to adapt to the changes in practice that the pandemic has caused, some of which look likely to continue for some time.
We have also shown compassion to our colleagues and on International Nurses' Day, of all days, I am going to be reaching out to colleagues who are GPNs to grab a cuppa, reflect on the year and celebrate our roles. We cannot underestimate the comfort that we have brought to our patients and colleagues during the pandemic, and we need to show ourselves care and compassion. Connecting, congratulating and continued encouragement to our nursing colleagues may seem a small gesture, but it reaps huge rewards!
Who knows what is ahead of us, but we know that can draw on our experience and wisdom for the weeks and months ahead. Happy International Nurses' Day!
As always, we would love to hear what you did on International Nurses' Day. Please share your stories at pn@markallengroup.com or on Twitter @PNjournal and inspire others.
‘Practice Nursing provides nurses working in general practice with the tools to reach their full potential and deliver the best possible care to their patients. Our monthly journal informs and inspires by providing up-to-date, evidence-based clinical articles, highlighting key professional issues and promoting the latest research in general practice.’