Nursing In Action: Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery to Support Health for All Book

A practical, step-by-step guide to the introduction of changes intended to strengthen the role and status of nurses in Europe. Emphasis is placed on changes that lead to improved patient care in line with the principles of health for all. Noting that nurses are uniquely placed to perceive the need for change and then take the initiative, the book aims to help readers think through weaknesses in health care, understand how to introduce change, and take the appropriate action, whether to improve practices on a hospital ward or to change the way nurses are trained.

The book opens with an overview of problems faced by the nursing profession at a time when dramatic changes in Europe call for expanded functions and responsibilities. Three conditions that influence the development of nursing throughout Europe are identified as a lack of power to influence decisions about health care, the low status and poor pay characteristic of a female-dominated profession, and the strong medical bias in European health systems. The second chapter considers how nursing practice can be changed. Adopting a step-by-step approach, the chapter helps readers think through the process of change, analyse situations, understand sources of resistance, and avoid common pitfalls. Advice on the development of a regulatory framework is considered in the next chapter, which shows how a well-designed regulatory system can work as an important strategy in efforts to create a well-informed, responsible profession equipped to provide effective services. The remaining chapters cover eight stages in the review and reorientation of curricula for nursing education, and consider ways to develop leadership qualities in nurse teachers and managers and during postbasic nursing education.