ICN 24th Quadrennial Congress “Leading Change: Building Healthier Nations » (02/07/2009)
The EFN is participating in the 24th Quadrennial Congress of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), taking place in Durban, South Africa, from 27 June to 4 July 2009. The congress, aiming to showcase the key role nursing plays in leading the way to healthier nations, and bringing together more than 5.000 nurses from 134 countries, will permit access to and dissemination of nursing knowledge and leadership across specialities, cultures and countries. In the context of the symposium on Advocacy, lobbying and legislation, the EFN General Secretary made a presentation, on 1st July, on the synergy between the European Directive 36 and the Bologna Process, and stated that “A continuously changing and increasingly demanding healthcare environment requires significant investment in improved qualifications for nurses”. The EFN General Secretary also participated in the meeting of the Council of National Representatives (CNR) - ICN’s governing body – which focussed on the debate of ICN constitution, membership structure and finances; and elected its new President - Ms Rosemary Bryant (Australia), outstanding nursing leader at national and international level and ICN Second Vice President from 2005 to 2009. New members of the ICN Board of Directors were also elected for a 4 years’ term (2009-2013), being constituted as follow: Marlene Smadu (Canada), Beatríz Carvallo Suaréz (Colombia), Maria Angela Elias Marroquin (El Salvador), Julita Sansoni (Italy), Masako Kanai-Pak (Japan), Elizabeth Oywer (Kenya), Rudolph Cini (Malta), Marion Guy (New Zealand), Maria Augusta Sousa (Portugal), Peter Pozun (Slovenia), Anna Karin Eklund (Sweden), Teresa J.C. Yin (Taiwan), Sylvia Denton (United Kingdom), and William Holzemer (USA).
'Patient information' may be excluded from EU Pharmaceutical Package (30/06/2009)
Meeting in Luxembourg, on 9 June 2009, the Council of the European Union exchanged views on a number of issues, including the pharmaceutical package. The EU Ministers broadly welcomed the proposed legislations on preventing the entry of counterfeit medicines and Pharmacovigilance, but expressed some concerns regarding the proposal to allow pharmaceutical companies to provide drug information directly to patients. Therefore, as there have been requests by a number of Member States to proceed with the Pharmacovigilance and Counterfeiting Medicines’ Directives and not with the Information to Patients’ Directive, as there are so many different sets of opinions regarding this, the European Commission is expected to delay the legislative proposal on the provision of information to patients. As the preparations are being made to shape the new College of Commissioners, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), which the EFN is a member, the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC) and the Association Internationale de la Mutualité (AIM) addressed a letter to the European Commission calling on its President and the EU Member States to make sure health is the main driver for pharmaceutical policy at EU level by giving the lead role in medicines to a health focused directorate within the European Commission.
Nurse Candidate for Vice-President of the European Parliament (24/06/2009)
The Greens/EFA Group today selected Isabelle Durant as its candidate for the European Parliament Vice-President post. Newly elected Green MEP and Co-President of 'Ecolo', the francophone Belgian Green Party, Isabelle Durant was previously Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, transport Minister AND is, by professional background, a NURSE. Confirming her candidacy, she underlined the importance of transparency issues, citizen initiatives and forging closer ties with the European Parliament's host region of Brussels. The European Parliament Vice-Presidents will be elected during the next Strasbourg plenary session to take place on 14-16 July 2009. The EFN wishes Ms Durant all success and is looking forward working closely with her on important health files in the European Parliament.
EU elections & EFN/EFN Members actions
2nd Congress of Latvian Nurses and Midwives (22/06/2009)
The EFN participated in the 2nd Latvian Nurses and Midwives Congress organised in Riga – Latvia, on 18-19 June 2009, which was aiming to promote professionals’ discussion about health care quality and multidisciplinary collaboration, and share experience on the developments in nursing and midwifery education, legislation, leadership and regulation. The nurses and midwives present in the meeting had the opportunity to discuss on: the role of Continuing Professional Development in Nursing and Midwifery practice; the perspectives of Nursing Leadership and Management; the positive practice environments: necessity, potentialities, solutions; the meaning of multidisciplinary collaboration in providing quality patient care; and the nurses and midwives role in family health. The EFN General Secretary made a presentation on the EFN EU Lobby Priorities and stated that “The future of EU Healthcare needs to reflect the changing health and illness patterns as well as changing health needs of an aging population. In light of the global financial crisis, we need to get on the train of the EU Social Cohesion Funds for supporting innovations and developments in Nurse Education as well as supporting the Recruitment and Retention of our Nursing Workforce.” Together with Jolanta Zalite, the EFN General Secretary met Mr. Arturs Gravitis, from the Ministry of Health, to discuss some important nursing files.
EUNetPaS Coordination Meeting (03/06/2009)
The EFN President, Grete Christensen, EFN Secretary General, Paul De Raeve, and EFN Policy Advisor, Andreas Xyrichis, participated in the 3rd EUNetPaS coordination meeting and workshops in Copenhagen where significant progress was made on WP1 - Patient Safety Culture; WP2 - Education; and WP4 - Field Testing. Concerning WP1, three safety culture measurement tools have been chosen and will be piloted in Lithuania in September 2009. An accountability toolkit discussing the utility of various instruments and the process of change towards a safer culture shall be developed after the 24 September Madrid meeting. Concerning WP2, Patient safety guidelines were discussed taking into account EFN members input. A next draft will be prepared for the October Brussels meeting. The EFN members and alliances will be consulted on the next version and explore scenario’s on how the guidelines can be used. Concerning WP4, the process of piloting medication safety interventions, including the EFN members’ contribution, is underway in 11 EU Member States. Next steps include working towards developing a community of hospitals as a forum for further exchanging of advice, support, and best practices. The next coordination meeting will take place in Athens, Greece, on 28-29 January 2010.
International Congress “Long Term Care and Quality of Life” (02/06/2009)
The EFN Secretary General, Paul De Raeve, was invited to make a presentation on “Nurses Views on the EU Challenges for Long-Term Care”, in Pamplona. Spain has a new Act on Dependence and different stakeholder expressed their concern on the lack of implementation, mostly due to financial lack of resources. Mostly, the private sector organising elderly care and chronic care complains of the lack of development and implementation. In the session on health professions, the General Practitioner presenting his views stressed the importance of nursing leadership in long term care. “Doctors should not lead long term care” was a statement coming from the physicians present and of course private sector. As such, the discussion on skill mix and skill needs is quite relevant. The Spanish EU Presidency will have patient safety and long term care high on its political agenda.
To see the EFN presentation video
To see other presentations' video
(go to 'Canales' section - II C.I. DEPENDENCIA)
International Nurses’ Day – 12 May 2009 (12/05/2009)
We live in a constantly changing world. This is our reality, our challenge and our opportunity as nurses, to make a significant difference to the people all over the world. And we have never been in a better position to do so, despite the current economical and financial crisis. In this International Nurses’ Day, and in a context of European elections, the EFN published a Manifesto based on EFN Members’ experience, which is calling on the MEPs to support three priorities and use their influence to help: Implement the European Directive which regulates the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications (DIR 36); Plan the EU Workforce for Health to meet citizens’ needs; and Deliver Quality and Safeguard Patient Safety. With up to 6 million nurses within Europe, the EFN and its members are a significant voting force. The EFN members are taking this opportunity to raise awareness of their national EU candidates on the issues that are essential for nurses and the nursing profession in their own country, and to ensure that the elected MEPs will be able to play a key role in ensuring that the nurses’ concerns, at national level, are also adequately addressed in the work of the European Parliament.
EPP Debate on the Economic & Financial Crisis
(05/05/2009)
The EFN Secretary General participated in the High level panel debate on “Europe in the economic & financial crisis: How to bring back prosperity for everyone?” held on 4 May 2009, in Brussels. Prior to the ECOFIN Council, this meeting brought together Ministers of Finance from the European countries and the keynote speech was delivered by Mr. Lucas Papademos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank. Although the discussion was orientated towards the bank sector and setting up a new risk Council, only the Minister of Finance from Finland, Jyrki Katainen, touched upon health. He made reference to the Finish recession in the nineties and this was an opportunity to express EFN members concerns as set out in the EFN Press Release. In the panel feedback, the main focus was on pension reform (working until 67), development of more skilled workforce and getting people a job.
Spring EFN General Assembly, 16-17 April 2009
(21/04/2009)
The EFN organised its 90th General Assembly in Brussels where members discussed important issues related to EFN/ICN and EFN ongoing lobby activities: Green Paper on EU Workforce for Health; Skill Mix & Skill Needs; Social Cohesion Funds; Patient Safety EU Project (EUNetPaS); EU Council Recommendations on Patient Safety & Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs); Quality Standards; the Bologna Summit and last but not least the upcoming European Parliament (June 2009) and WHO RC (September 2009) elections. The EFN members took generously time sharing their national key concerns as regards the impact of the financial/economic crisis on nurses and nursing. The majority of the countries reported that the crisis was felt through health budget cuts, staff lay-offs, closure of units, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, reduced salaries, reduced intake of nursing students, forced unpaid leave and reduced pension schemes. This is leading to increased nursing workload, and to unsafe services and unsafe patient care. In the follow-up of this Tour de Table, the EFN published a Press Release on this important issue, calling the Heads of State and Finance Ministers to invest and protect health and social services, to build the workforce for health, and to financially support the member states hardest hit.
Next to the EFN General Assembly, the EFN members had the opportunity to follow a lobby course organised on 15 April 2009, by the European Training Institute. The EFN members were orientated how to lobby and adapt their strategies according to the ongoing changes at EU Institutions level, and how to input the decision-making processes. Finally, a visit to the European Parliament was organised for the members to get a full picture on how this institution is functioning.
Health in Times of Global Economic Crisis (06/04/2009)
The EFN General Secretary represented the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) in the WHO High Level meeting “Health in times of global economic crisis: implications for the WHO European Region”, held on 1-2 April 2009, in Oslo, Norway, in which national governments discussed how the health sector can help mitigate negative health and social impacts and counter the economic downturn. Interesting for EFN was that governments stressed the importance of primary health care, skill mix and skill needs to achieve more health for our money and the importance of recruitment and retention strategies for health professionals, specifically nurses. Interesting speeches came from Alan Maynard, Martin McKee and Mary Robinson, underlining the importance of “think out of the health box”.
Follow the speeches, presentations and discussions online
EFN & ICN Presidents meet in Cyprus (30/03/2009)
The EFN President, Ms Grete Christensen, was invited to participate in the meetings organized by the Cyprus Nurses and Midwives Association (CYNMA), a Member of EFN, on the occasion of Dr. Hiroko Minami, ICN President, visit to Cyprus, on 23-25 March 2009. As key speaker in this event, Ms Christensen made a presentation on "European Nursing workforce: Problems and Perspectives" and stated that the topic “EU Workforce for Health” is of high priority for EFN members as the “Current European trends in health system reform, with their overarching concern for cost-containment, have had a downside for nursing in many European countries. This is reflected in cuts in nursing budgets, the loss of a nursing voice in governmental decision-making processes, increases in nursing workloads, and serious concerns about patient safety and the quality of care. These trends need to be countered by effective and efficient EU added value policies”. This event brought together Academics of the Nursing departments from all Nursing Universities, MPs, Ministry of Health Officers, Nurses, representatives of Nursing Unions and the Nursing & Midwifery Council.
EFN provides input to Skill Mix-Skill Needs Debate
(25/03/2009)
DG Employment brought together experts with an in-depth expertise in the health and social services sector in the domains of human resources, with key knowledge in foresight and scenario analysis, as well as in the field of education and training. The EFN Position Statement on Skill Mix and Skill Needs guided the discussion related to Nursing and amended quite extensively the draft findings of the comprehensive analysis of emerging competences and economic activities in the Health and social services sector. The elaborated scenarios of future evolution of health and social services sector until 2020 and the implication on employment in existing occupations and on new skills needed for jobs in the sector were extensively discussed.
When it comes to Information to Patients, Nurses have their say! (03/03/2009)
The EFN participated as key note speaker in the roundtable on “Information to Patients” organised by the European Regional and Local Health Authorities Network (EUREGHA) on 3 March 2009, in Brussels. The aim of this event, which brought together regional and local authorities, was to open up a constructive debate and explore the ways in which local and regional health authorities could better improve the information to citizens and, thereof, achieve greater health outcomes. The EFN General Secretary stressed that “Being innovative in skill mix and extending roles and responsibilities is one element of the equation, next to working in multi-disciplinary teams, wider health teams and learning from each other.” In relation to the European Commission proposed Directive, the EFN supports EPHA response on Information to Patients.
European Commission Call for Proposals 2009: New funding opportunities in health (02/03/2009)
The European Commission published, on 26 February, the work plan for 2009 - implementing the second Health Programme of Community action in the field of health (2008-2013) -, together with the announcement of the calls for proposals for projects, operating grants, conferences and joint actions. All proposals should address important problems in the European public health sector and be in line with the European Commission priorities stressed in the Work Plan 2009. The successful proposals should concentrate on aspects of public health that cannot be achieved on a national level, and ensure a significant impact across the EU. An Information Day, in which the EFN is taking part, will be organised on 18 March 2009 in Luxembourg. The deadline for submitting proposals is 20 May 2009.
The EFN addressed the Chief Nursing Officers meeting on Education and Workforce (10/02/2009)
The EFN was invited to make a presentation on Education and on Workforce in the Chief Nursing Officers meeting that took place in Prague on 4-6 February 2009, under the auspice of the Czech EU Presidency. The conference discussed on ‘Education’, to which the EFN highlighted the need for implementing DIR36, the recognition of variability of the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and the importance of Social Cohesion Funds to make a difference in the field, and advocated for “one voice for nurses and nursing”. The Chief Nursing Officers welcomed a closer collaboration with EFN. The second day conference concentrated on the “Green Paper on EU Workforce for Health”, in which the main challenges for nurses and nursing: recruitment and retention, ethical recruitment code and the lack of comparable data, were discussed. The EFN stressed the importance of developing an EU workforce planning mechanism, the emphasis of a gender perspective in the Green Paper and the need for concrete action based on the EU Member States best practices.
EFN Experts Platform on Education (28/01/2009)
The EFN organised a meeting, on 26 January 2009, with the EFN Members experts on Education to discuss the implementation of the EFN Policy & Position Statements on Synergies between Directive 36, Bologna, and European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The experts mainly focussed on the challenges around Directive 36 and the lack of synergy with Bologna and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and concluded that there is incompatibility between prescribed Directive 36 Nurse training hours and ECTS, and that no valid and reliable measurement of nurse competencies exists. It was also expressed that the clinical outcomes cannot be separated from the academic level of achievement; and that a single European level of Nurses, which would improve patient outcomes and facilitate recruitment and retention of nursing staff, is needed but may not be enough in light of nurse shortage. Finally, the experts’ group believe that the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) should be included in Directive 36; and that from a practical point of view the experts could develop a generic tool for bridging courses, recognising the differences between the EU Member States, and initiate a pool of Nurse Professors to support those Member States starting with a nursing faculty. The EFN is looking forward to provide its input to the Bologna Summit to take place on 28-29 April 2009, in Belgium.
Health First Europe Exhibition on “the future of Health” (08/01/2009)
The EFN is taking part in the exhibition organised by Health First Europe (HFE) in the European Parliament, from 6 to 9 January 2009, under the patronage of the MEP Elizabeth Lynne. The aim of this event is to raise awareness of the EU on the quality of healthcare and safety of patients and healthcare workers in Europe. In the last months, healthcare quality and patient safety have been a priority on the European agenda. Some initiatives were undertaken, such as: the adoption of a proposal for a directive to facilitate the application of European patients’ rights in relation to cross-border healthcare; the adoption of a Communication and a proposal for a Council Recommendation on Patient Safety, including the prevention and control of Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs); and the launch of the Green paper on the EU Workforce for Health. The EFN hopes that these recent initiatives are just the beginning of EU action in the area of health. Therefore, the EFN invites you to visit the exhibition at the “Espace Bar” (3rd floor, ASP) and to take a few minutes examining the available information.
05/01/2009
Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year! 2008 was an exciting lobby year for EFN, with a very positive end: the launch of the Green Paper on EU Workforce for Health and the Council Recommendations on Patient Safety and Healthcare Associated Infections, both under the overall framework of the ambitious Health Services Directive. These concrete outcomes were only possible due to the EFN members input to the EU policy-making processes and DG Sanco leadership in policy-making. The EFN has now a solid governance structure with strong leadership of the Executive Committee which reflect the courage of all nurses believing in the values and principles of nursing. All these positive developments led to an increased membership of National Nursing Associations joining the EFN, similar to the enlargement of the EU. It becomes clear that the EFN members feel safe in the “House of Nurses” and that investing in EFN means investing in nursing leading to EU policies reflecting the daily reality of millions of nurses in the EU and Europe. Even in difficult economical times, high living costs and extremely difficult working conditions, the EFN keeps on leading change in policy affecting the daily life of six million nurses. Therefore, we all need to be optimistic about the future and being proud to be a nurse.
Grete Christensen Paul de Raeve
EFN President EFN General Secretary
