industry & reform
Nurses Ashlee Routley , Chenae Spencer-Attard , Megan Frankenfeld , Sophie Dohnt and Arianne Pancho in front of the RAH in Adelaide , for International
Nurses Day in 2020 . Picture : Matt Loxton
Making a difference
Kylie Ward shares what International Nurses Day means to her , and her hopes for the future of nursing .
Kylie Ward interviewed by Elise Hartevelt
Professor Kylie Ward loves her job and is proud to be a nurse .
Ahead of International Nurses Day on May 12 , Nursing Review asked ACN ’ s chief executive what the day means to her .
She said that 2022 ’ s theme : ‘ A voice to lead : Invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health ’ is very fitting considering the past couple of years .
“ I ’ d say that if the nursing profession didn ’ t step up and didn ’ t continue to
14 | nursingreview . com . au go to work when we were all scared and uncertain , we would ’ ve had an extraordinarily different outcome in Australia .”
In the conversation she recalls the hundreds of instances of outstanding service from nurses .
“ Nurses are always talking about the unique way they know they ’ re making a difference .”
NR : What does International Nurses Day mean to you ? And why is it important that we celebrate this day ? KW : It is an important day . It celebrates the collective achievements of nurses across the world . There ’ s around 24 to 28 million nurses worldwide working in different ways in different rural , regional and city areas . And it really reflects on the global impact of the nursing profession towards universal healthcare .
This year ’ s theme is ‘ A Voice to Lead , Invest in Nursing and Respect Rights to Secure Global Health ’ and I think off the back of the last couple of years of the pandemic , but even what we ’ re seeing with climate , with wars , with the very unstable environment , the respect to secure global health is now more important than ever .
What key roles have nurses played in healthcare over the past year ? We ’ re probably are a little bit fatigued of hearing about COVID and the pandemic , but we ’ ve seen the leadership role of the