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To nurses, midwives and all health and care workers.

Today we celebrate World Health Day. This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to raise global awareness of the crucial work nurses and midwives do to keep the world healthy.  The invaluable contribution of nurses, midwives and other health and care workers – many of whom are represented in EPHA’s membership- both in clinical settings and in the community is often under-valued, even taken for granted. Now, the completely different circumstances we find ourselves in, fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, has highlighted just how much we rely on them, more than ever. 

The European Public Health Alliance would like to say a deep and heartfelt thank you to you all.

EPHA welcomes the State of the World’s Nursing report, released today by WHO. and the recommendations it makes to strengthen the nursing profession, nationally, in Europe and across the world. Our health security depends not only on nurses and midwives, but on the full force of the medical and care professions. It is well beyond the time where we need to improve not only their pay and working conditions, but ensure they benefit from appropriate peer and inter-professional support, high quality accreditation systems of training and education, and continuous professional development to advance their competences and improve their roles. Only through intersectoral action and policy coherence between health, education, migration, development, employment, and economic policies can we build strong health systems and a sustainable health workforce.

The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to reverberate in the months and years to come. We must ensure that the gratitude we feel today, to the many nurses and other health and care workers who are putting themselves on the frontline across Europe and globally, is not forgotten as we rebuild our health security and resilience in a post-COVID-19 world.