The State of Nursing Outside of the U.S.

January 26, 2018

2018 Middle Eastern Nurses conference, Aqaba, Jordan.

There was a great story in the Guardian this week about a nurse who moved from Canada to work  in the UK.

Basically, she described her position in the UK as one of blanket obedience.

Everything that a nurse needed to do beyond practical matters required the approval or direct action of a physician.  And, her opinion was neither sought nor respected. She felt “undervalued, underpaid, and under stress.”

This is where nursing was when Florence Nightingale went to the Crimea in the 19th century.   The British Army doctors dismissed Nightingale, first, as  a woman and, second, for her focus on nursing which was assumed to be irrelevant beyond cleaning bedpans and changing poultices.  Yet, it was in the Crimea that Nightingale was relentless in implementing her theory and developing the first nursing practice model.  (Note:  It was here that the mortality rate at the Scutari hospital went fro 42% down to 2%, directly related to Nightingale’s work.)

Nursing Began Within a Global Framework

Today, although the working environment for nurses varies greatly, the state of nursing around the world is strong.

Nursing began within a global framework, with Nightingale traveling across Europe and publishing treatises that would inform not only nursing, but also public health, nursing research, and hospital design.

I am again en route to Aqaba, Jordan, for the Sixth Annual Middle Eastern Nurses and Partners United in Human Caring conference presented by the Watson Caring Science Institute and Nurses in the Middle East.

From its inception, this event incorporates the work of Dr. Jean Watson in practice using the Caritas Principles. This year’s theme of “The Nursing Force in Promoting Health Equity,” will:

• Unite diverse perspectives of human caring, transcending borders, religions, cultures, and boundaries for authentic caring-healing and health for all.
• Explore global human caring-healing needs and approaches of caregivers and how to create a community of caring-healing practitioners, transcending current structures and systems.
• Examine healthcare policy recommendations that address individual and systems caring practices that support transformative, comprehensive, authentic human caring for all people around the globe.

Nurses Are Forever Connected

The conference theme unites all health professionals under a shared commitment to offer knowledgeable, compassionate human caring to self-other-society.

Speakers and panelists are looking at nursing in the middle of societal and global crises.  Four speakers are discussing refugee transformation.

Nurses from 10 Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bahrain, Dubai, Israel, Palestine, as well as the United States attended last year’s conference. They share a unique bond because nurses are forever connected and human caring is what brings the soul of nursing into practice.

I will be writing again from Jordan.

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