#IND2024: Our Nurses. Our Future.

May 12 each year is International Nurses Day (IND), an opportunity to celebrate nurses everywhere. This year we’re recognising The Economic Power of Care.
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IND2024

In 2023, the International Council of Nurses launched Our Nurses. Our Future. 

This campaign shines a light on the global health challenges that need to be addressed, and the role nurses will play in improving global health. 

This year’s focus builds on the campaign from 2023, with an additional theme:

The Economic Power of Care

Nurses know all too well that our work is often plagued by financial constraints and societal undervaluation. 

So, in 2024, IND aims to reshape perceptions, demonstrating how strategic investment in nursing can bring considerable economic and societal benefits.

ICN President, Dr Pamela Cipriano explained the reasoning behind the chosen theme:

“Despite being the backbone of health care, nursing often faces financial constraints and societal undervaluation. Continuing our overarching theme, Our Nurses. Our Future. and the policy actions of the ICN Charter for Change, ICN has chosen to focus IND 2024 on the economic power of care with the aim to reshape perceptions and demonstrate how strategic investment in nursing can bring considerable economic and societal benefits.

We believe now is the time for a shift in perspective. We have seen time and again how financial crises often lead to budgetary restrictions in health care, typically at the expense of nursing services. This reductionist approach overlooks the substantial and often underemphasized economic value that nursing contributes to health care and society as a whole.

Policymakers, health care administrators, and even the general public are often unaware or misinformed about the return on investment that adequate funding in nursing can provide, especially in financially turbulent times such as these. Drawing from the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizing the increasing threat to the health of populations around the world due to conflicts, the climate crisis and financial instability, we believe the time is right to advocate for a shift in perspective and policy.”

Our community of nurses is phenomenal, and we’d like to thank you all for the contribution you make to the wider community. 

Remember, while #IND2024 is a great opportunity to share the importance of nursing with the broader community and to celebrate your achievements, it doesn’t mean that your profession comes without it’s harder moments, especially when we’re discussing the fact nurses are chronically undervalued.

With that in mind, we’d love all of you to take some time out this IND to focus on your own wellbeing — here’s three of our favourite resources from the past 12 months! 

Self-compassion
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Author and social worker Mary Freer has dedicated her career to transforming how we think about compassion. She founded the Compassion Revolution, and joined midwife Celeste Pinney recently to discuss how self-compassion can help carry nurse and midwives through post-traumatic experiences. 

Tune into the full episode here.

Your financial wellbeing
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While we know money isn’t everything, we know financial stress can be a contributor to overall stress and anxiety. 

From knowing your key numbers and your why to creating a financial mindset, we were delighted to have Financial Advisor Ben Wauchope write a blog for us earlier in the year, helping nurses to build a financial foundation. 

If money is something you sweat about, it might be a great one to revisit! 

Read it here.

And something a little longer…
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We don’t normally do book reviews, but earlier in the year, Elle Brown, RN, gave us a recommendation that was perfect.

The book - Burnout: Solve Your Stress Cycle, by Emily & Amelia Nagoski - couldn’t be more relevant to “givers”, like nurses and midwives.

THE “TL;DR” OF THE BOOK IS:

Wellness is not a state of mind, but a state of action. It is the freedom to move through the innate cycles and oscillations of being human — from effort to rest and back, from connection to autonomy and back, from adventure to homecoming and back.

But we really hope you can take the time to read the full version.

The #IND2024 webinar
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Remember, one of the best supports is to be surrounded by the nursing community. With that in mind, we’d really encourage everyone to attend the #IND2024 webinar, which will run through the latest IND report with a big audience of nurses.

You can register here.

Contact us
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Wherever you find yourself during International Nurses Day 2024, take a moment to celebrate, breathe deeply and reflect on your amazing career. If there’s anything you need to talk to another nurse about, call 1800 667 877 or email us — free, confidential, 24/7.