This year’s International Nurses Day (IND) will centre on supporting the health and wellbeing of the workforce and aims to bring about ‘actionable solutions’ to improve nurses’ long-term health.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN), which sets the theme for IND every year, has today revealed that this year’s celebration will carry the strapline of: ‘Our Nurses. Our Future. Caring for nurses strengthens economies.’
ICN president Dr Pamela Cipriano said the goal was to not only highlight the challenges nurses face, but to also ‘provide a roadmap for enabling a healthier nursing workforce’.
A special report on the importance of supporting nurse wellbeing will be released by the ICN on 12 May to mark IND, which is celebrated on the birthday of Florence Nightingale.
The theme intends to underscore the ‘critical role a healthy nursing workforce plays in strengthening economies, improving health systems, and ensuring better outcomes for communities worldwide’, the ICN said.
Dr Cipriano said: ‘For our 2025 IND theme we are highlighting the importance of supporting the health and wellbeing of nurses, who are vital to the functioning of health systems globally.
‘Nurses face numerous challenges: physical, mental, emotional and ethical, and it is imperative that we address these challenges in a way that promotes their overall health.’
She added: ‘This theme provides an opportunity to bring actionable solutions to the forefront – solutions that can be implemented immediately to support nurses in their daily work and improve their long-term health.’
Dr Cipriano said the theme also reinforces its appeal to organisations and governments to ‘value, protect, respect and invest in our nurses for a sustainable future for nursing and health care’.
The ICN’s special IND report will focus on ‘tangible, evidence-based solutions to enhance nurses’ health and wellbeing, recognising their crucial role in optimising both health systems and economies’.
Key concerns including mental health, physical wellness and workplace safety will be addressed within the report, as well as the need to create ‘safer, more supportive and positive’ work environments for nurses.
‘Our goal with IND2025 is not only to highlight the challenges nurses face but also to provide a roadmap for enabling a healthier nursing workforce,’ Dr Cipriano said.
‘By prioritising the wellbeing of nurses, we are ensuring that they can continue to provide the high-quality care that is critical to the health of our communities.’
The Nursing in Practice 2024 General Practice Nursing Manifesto called on general practice employers, primary care networks and nursing bodies to ‘support nurses with their health and care, so they can care for others’.
A special roundtable centred on our manifesto last year explored concerns of practice nurses feeling burnt out, compassion fatigue and ‘squeezed out’ of their workplaces.
To mark IND last year – which was focused on the ‘economic power of care’, Nursing in Practice spoke with practice nurses who said they were still working to ‘push the agenda’ to show their competence and skills.
