NURSES DAY THEME 2019-05-14

Respected dignitaries on the dais Smt. Padmalata Niranjan, Executive Director, SDM medical
college and hospital, Dr. Niranjan Kumar, Vice Chancellor, Sri Dharmasthala
manjunatheshwara University, Prof. David Kola, principal SDM institute of Nursing
Sciences, faculty and staff my dear students, a happy morning to you all.

It is my proud privilege to take part in this nurse’s day celebration. I am thankful to Prof.
David Kola for inviting me to this auspicious celebration. First of all I wish happy
international Nurses day.

In this occasion I would like to speak on two things

1. International Nurse’s day theme 2019

2. Biography of Florence Nightingale

How and when this nurse’s day celebration came into existence

 In the year 1953 Dorothy Sutherland proposed this day

 First time in the year 1965 International Nurse’s Council celebrated Nurses Day on
May 12th the birthday of Florence Nightingale
 In the year 1974 this day officially got recognition, from then this day is celebrated
throughout the world.

Why we have to celebrate

 Serving humanity is one of the great professions. Nurses are doing this. Nurses are
meeting the health needs of the people to improve physical, mental and social
wellbeing. We are backbone of the health care system.
 We can say that International Nurses Day is celebrated across the world to raise
public awareness about, nursing as a profession, what important roles nurses are
performing, what contribution nurses are made towards the health care system
development.

Theme of 2019

Every year ICN chooses a theme to celebrate International Nurses Day. For the past two
years we have celebrated the voice of nursing with the theme Nurses: A Voice to Lead. In
2017 the theme was Nurses: A voice to Lead in achieving the sustainable development Goals.
In 2018 the theme was human rights to health. This international nurse’s day 2019 theme is
Nurses: A Voice to Lead, Health for all.

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What is Health for all?

Health for All means that, health is brought into reach of everyone in a given country.”
Health in this context means not just the availability of health services, but a complete state
of physical and mental health that enables a person to lead a socially and economically
productive life.

‘Health for All’, was first articulated on 12 September 1978, 134 countries met in Alma Ata,
Kazakhstan (now known as Almaty) for the international conference on Primary Health Care
(PHC). This event marked an important turning point in the history of public health focused
on role of government and other health workers to protect and promote the health of the
world’s population through a PHC approach.

The Declaration also affirmed that all people in all countries have a fundamental right to
health, and that governments are responsible for upholding this right.

Role of nurse in meeting the goal of Health for All

 Nursing is the largest health care profession in the world and they are the key factors
in achieving health for all goals.
 Nurses are working in all areas where health care is provided
 According to their scope of practice, nurses provide appropriate, accessible and
evidence-based care.
 Nurses are voice for patients and have the power to change people’s lives with quality
health advice and care.
 Nurses must make sure that everyone can access the skills and expertise of health
workers.
 Nurses should empower patients to take care of their own health
 Nurses should know the needs of the patients and teach them what they can do to get
and stay healthy.
 Nurses are essential in transforming health care and health systems such that no
person is left behind, without access to care or impoverished because of their need for
health care.
 To achieve Health for All there must be a transformation in the approach to health and
wellbeing
 With a core role as a patient advocate, their scientific reasoning skills, numbers and
spectrum of care across the continuum, nurses are ideally placed to lead and inform
health services decision making and policy development.
 Nurses play a pivotal role in addressing the multiple health challenges that are being
faced all over the world. Nurses are the engine room of the health system and are
required to respond to the health needs of individuals, communities and the world.
Becoming a voice to lead meaning coordinating with government, community leaders, policy
maker and investors for making health care is affordable and accessible.

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Now coming to the Biography of Florence Nightingale I will only focus on salient landmarks

 Florence Nightingale famous for being the “Lady with the Lamp” was born in
Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820.
 During the Crimean War 1854, she and a team of nurses improved the unsanitary
conditions at a British base hospital, reducing the death count by two-thirds.
 Her far-sighted ideas and reforms have influenced modern health care.
 Her greatest achievement was to transform nursing into respectable profession for
women
 In 1860 she established first professional training school for nurses “The Nightingale
Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital.
 She campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, published over 200 books,
reports and pamphlets on hospital planning and organization.
 Her most famous work “Notes on Nursing-What it is and what it is not”.
 She focused on infection control measures, healthy diet, role of physical environment
in patient recovery, comfort measures and psychological and spiritual factors in
recovery of patients
 She also believed in need for specialist midwifery nurses and established a school of
Midwifery Nursing at King’s College Hospital which became a model for the country.
 Her attention later turned to the health of the British army in India and she
demonstrated that bad drainage, contaminated water, overcrowding and poor
ventilation were causing the high death rate. She concluded that the health of the army
and the people of India had to go hand in hand and so campaigned to improve the
sanitary conditions of the country as a whole.
 Despite often being confined to her sick bed with bacterial infection known as
brucellosis, Florence continued as a driving force behind the scenes writing letters and
communicating to organizations.
 Many awards she received Royal Red cross in 1883, first women to receive Order of
merit in 1907, Britain’s highest civilian decoration.
 Florence died at the age of 90, on 13th August 1910 in London.

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