The European Forum of National Nursing and Midwifery Associations (EFNNMA) is the voice of nursing and midwifery within WHO European Region.Working in partnership and strategically with WHO and other key stakeholders we aim to influence health policy, improve the quality of health services and the health of people across the 53 Member States of the Region. We are passionate advocates of the central and unique contribution that Nurses and Midwives make to individual and population health and well-being across Europe and are committed to ensuring both professions are supported to deliver excellence in their practice. As the nature of care changes we believe that strengthening and developing the nursing and midwifery workforce through the provision of lifelong learning and research delivers excellence in public health and people-centered healthcare.
March 24-25 - Joint WHO meeting - outcomes and next steps
On March 24-25 Government Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers, National Nursing and Midwifery Associations and WHO Collaborating Centers for Nursing and Midwifery in the WHO European Region virtually met to discuss the five-year progress in implementation of the European Directions on Developing Nursing and Midwifery and make an input into the next 5-year plan, the Roadmap on implementation of the Global Strategic Directions on Nursing and Midwifery.
In the last five years, the direction of nursing and midwifery (N&M) in the WHO European Region has been set by the European strategic directions for strengthening nursing and midwifery towards Health 2020 goals (ESDNM). Now, the global health agenda is focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), universal health coverage – including primary health care – and COVID-19 recovery. As nurses and midwives (N&M) play a central role in achieving the SDG targets, delivering safe, high-quality care and promoting effective and efficient health services, it is key that we are able to support the WHO European Region Member States to fully enable the contributions of N&M.
The Global strategic directions on strengthening nursing and midwifery 2021–2025 (GSDNM) provides policy suggestions in four priority areas – education, jobs, service delivery and leadership – that reflect the most effective health-workforce strengthening approaches to date, using a health labor-market lens. To support this, the WHO Regional Office for Europe wants to develop a roadmap that will guide the implementation of the GSDNM in the context of the new WHO European Programme of Work 2020–2025 (EPW).
The biennial meeting provided a platform for key N&M representatives in the European Region to discuss the regional challenges, opportunities and specificities in relation to the GSDNM priority areas that should be considered when developing the roadmap.
Meeting report
Meeting resources
1. WHO Rural Retention guidelines 2010: https://www.who.int/hrh/retention/guidelines/en/
a. literature review prepared for the new guidelines that will come in a few weeks: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240013865
2. Roles and responsibilities of government chief nursing and midwifery officers, Capacity-building manual: https://www.who.int/hrh/nursing_midwifery/cnow/en/
3. Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030: https://www.who.int/hrh/resources/globstrathrh-2030/en/
4. Midwifery Assessment Tool for Education (MATE) (2020) https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/nursing-and-midwifery/publications/2020/midwifery-assessment-tool-for-education-mate-2020