2020 — Year of the Nurse and Midwife — was intended to be a global celebration of the critical and central role nurses and midwives play in health care. But a global pandemic saw celebration plans put on ice, as Australia’s largest healthcare workforce instead worked tirelessly in gruelling and unprecedented circumstances to fight for the lives of their patients. 

One way the nursing sector can retain nurses as well as attract people to the profession is to keep them engaged, happy in their job and looking forward to the start of every day, he says. Levitt, a professor, writer and gerontologist, is concerned that in a world where we have more seniors than children and approximately one quarter of nurses worldwide will leave the workforce in five years, workplaces are not putting enough effort into their culture.

According to the World Health Organisation, the world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. Educating the next generation of nurses and midwives is vital in ensuring vulnerable communities have access to quality healthcare. World Youth International has been working to improve health outcomes for women and children vulnerable communities, such as Odede, Kenya.

Kylie Hasse MACN is an Australian Army nurse who was inspired to apply for the Mid-Career Nurse Leadership Program after a conversation with ACN Director of Strategy Tania Dufty FACN at an ACN event in Canberra. ‘’I saw the program as a formal way of working out my leadership style,” she said. Participating in the program has greatly assisted Kylie in formulating her own understanding of nurse leadership. “The program solidified confidence in my own leadership ability and gave me practical tools and touch points of people to go to for advice,” she said.

This year is the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife – but why and what does it mean? Read the question and answer section below to find out.