For International Nurses Day, VCCC Alliance Research & Education Lead, Cancer Nursing, Prof Mei Krishnasamy reflects on this year’s theme: ‘Our Nurses. Our Future. The economic power of care’, and the International Council of Nursing's current focus on workforce challenges not just here in Australia, but across the globe.
The profession of nursing is in a precarious place. According to the 2023 International Nurses Day Report by the International Council of Nursing, there is a global workforce shortage of 30 million nurses and midwives. Without urgent investment, where nursing is seen as an investment rather than a cost, we will fail to achieve Universal Health Care, meet the Sustainable Development Goals and deliver equitable, person-centred care.
At the VCCC Alliance, we have been working to strengthen the capacity of nurses to raise our voice – to move from being the invisible backbone of the health care system to being partners in system-level innovation for equitable and efficient provision of cancer care.
We have worked with over 600 nurses across Victoria to develop essential cancer nursing knowledge via our Australian Council of Nursing (ACN) – endorsed Fundamentals of Cancer Nursing online course and research skills via our ACN-endorsed Essential Research Skills for Clinical Nurses online course, to critique, evaluate and advance the care we provide across all settings and in all contexts.
Dr Pamela Cipriano, President of the International Council of Nurses. explained the rationale behind this year’s International Nurses Day theme: “Time and again, we have seen that financial crises often lead to budgetary restrictions in health care, typically at the expense of nursing services.”
“The world has taken nurses for granted, treating them as an invisible and inexhaustible resource. It is now painfully apparent that nurses are endangered by the lack of respect and investment needed for a strong, enduring and sustainable workforce.”
“Policymakers, health care administrators, even the public are often unaware of or misinformed about the potential of nursing to deliver considerable return on investment and that there is a powerful economic benefit of investing in care.”
At the VCCC Alliance, our workshops, webinars and research intensives have enabled nurses to generate questions to drive improvements in clinical practice in cancer, focusing on patient safety, experience of cancer care, cancer health outcomes, workflows and costs. Many of these initiatives require nurses to be given the opportunity to work to their full scope of practice and to innovate through Advanced Practice roles.
“Investing in and respecting nurses to work to their full scope of practice as health professionals, scientists, researchers, educators and leaders will influence retention and recruitment, and provide nurses with opportunities to build impactful, dynamic career pathways,” Dr Cipriano said.
The VCCC Alliance’s work strengthens nurses’ capacity to use their voice to demonstrate that an investment in nursing is an investment in health for all.
Please join us in-person at the VCCC Building or online from 1.00-2.00pm on Monday 13 May for our Monday Lunch Live event, where we will celebrate International Nurses Day by showcasing how nurse-led research is contributing to the economic power of care. Three nurse researchers will discuss their important work, demonstrating how investment in nursing can bring considerable economic benefits to care and improved patient outcomes.
