"We're Back" about why and how the #Caring4Nurses campaign

"We're back!"
Is this what #COVID19 could have been thinking,
as the world entered another global viral pandemic?

While some people had been predicting a pandemic from an emerging virus for some years, no-one expected the rapid global spread of #COVID19, or the seriousness of the illness and its potential long-term effects. The health systems and the healthcare professionals providing first contact with patients had to take responsibility for patient care, even though they couldn't be fully prepared. Many of these were nurses, from those working around the clock to provide first contact with patients to those working equally hard in the background, as project leads, and in management, research and education. All of this in 2020, the #yearofthenurse.

We are very pleased with the positive response to the nurses' hard work. The applause from the public, the debates on recognition of nurses' place in society, the responses from governments on pay and working conditions. The work of the nurse has evolved, with nurses continuing to work in general roles, or moving into more specialist areas. We are delighted to see nurses entering into senior management roles. 

However, this positivity can be short-lived. As the images of nurses 'battling' the disease and 'working on the front lines' disappear from the news, and the applause fades away, society is starting to breathe a sigh of relief that it's over, and say that things are 'getting back to normal'. Many organisations have said to us that we cannot let this happen. That we must make the most of the positive feeling towards nurses and move from an emotional recognition of nurses' importance to something more formal and more concrete.

"Nurses are at the forefront of our health care system. They're always there delivering vital and expert services, working under an unprecedented workload, providing highly specialist care, and putting themselves at risk to take care of us. Sometimes we don't recognise it until it is obvious. They have shown that we can count on them, even in difficult and risky situations. Now it's time we appreciate their true value and take care of them."                      

This year is the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, but with so many nurses working around the clock, it was hard for them to be able to celebrate International Nurses Day on 12 May, Florence Nightingale's birthday – a very special day in a very special year. In collaboration with the digital agency ZN Consulting, we created the Caring4Nurses campaign to celebrate the day. This was our way of applauding the hard work of the nurses.

One year will not be enough, or even a decade, to do everything that we want to do. We established the not-for-profit Foundation of Nurse Specialists Europe (FoNSE) in March 2020. Its role will be to implement the projects and activities that we have in our long-term strategic plans.

The last global pandemic, the Spanish flu, lasted from February 1918 to April 1920, and infected around a third of the world's population in four successive waves. Then, like now, the work of nurses was highly appreciated. 

Now, in the midst of #COVID19, it's time for the better educated and specialized nurses to say
"We're back as well"

Throughout 2020 and even until l end 2030, there will be much more activities. We will continue to create and update information and communication guides for nurses. It is crucial for us, and for the five million nurses in Europe, to continue to make the #Caring4Nurses campaign a success for the rest of the year and for the years to come. 

Join our European Specialist Nurses Campaign
If you represent industry, are part of a university hospital or nursing organisation, or if you are an individual who sees the importance of nursing in Europe and of #Caring4Nurses, contact us to find out how we can connect.

More information:
www.esno.org – info@esno.org
www.Caring4Nurses.eu
www.esno-congress.eu