For various reasons, 2020 is a year that the history will never forget. COVID-19 has changed the modern world and nurses have been on the frontline battling this virus but, this is not the first time nurses have stepped up to bat to save humanity. This May marks the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale and the start of a nursing-led health care revolution. See below for the article written by Susan Korah—first published by the Canadian magazine Convivium—discussing the achievements of Nightingale and the nurses working in her honour. Full article: https://www.convivium.ca/articles/celebrating-nurses-from-crimea-to-covid-19/ Celebrating Nurses from crimea to covid-19By Susan Korah Today, our world needs healing and to be rekindled with Love. Once, Florence Nightingale lit her beacon of lamplight to comfort the wounded. Her light has blazed a path of service across a century to us -- through her example and through the countless nurses and healers who have followed in her footsteps.
When Annette Kennedy, the Irish President of the International Council of Nurses said last year that she was expecting the year 2020 to be a “momentous year for nurses,” little did she anticipate that the outbreak of COVID-19 that would transform nurses from the unsung, anonymous heroes of the healthcare profession to the newest stars in an age of instant celebrities.
Coincidentally, this year also happens to be the bicentennial of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founding mother of modern nursing, born 200 years ago on May 12. The WHO has also declared it the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. The visionary Englishwoman’s innovative contributions to healthcare practice—considered revolutionary in her time—are as relevant to today’s COVID-19-stricken world as when her Canadian student, Charlotte McLeod, helped establish the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON). The VON played a key role in fighting the typhoid epidemic during the Klondike Gold Rush between 1896 and 1899. Nightingale’s contributions to modern nursing and healthcare range from the philosophical to the strictly practical, say Canadian scholars who have studied her life and legacy.
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The Llandovery Castle is a new Canadian opera by composer by Stephanie Martin and librettist Paul Ciufo, created as an act of remembrance to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the hospital ship Llandovery Castle on June 27, 1918. The student production will be airing LIVE on APRIL 6, 2020 at 9pm. See link below. The opera focuses on the lives and service of 14 Canadian Nursing Sisters who died in the tragedy. The calm confidence, skill and selflessness of Canadian nurses during the Great War stand in stark contrast to the chaos and violence that surrounded them. From the horrors inflicted by inhuman trench warfare, the Sisters offered healing and compassion to soldiers on both sides of the conflict. The work premiered in two workshops performances in Toronto in June, 2018, to enthusiastic audiences and critical praise. Opera Laurier, based at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Music on the Waterloo campus produced the first FULL PRODUCTION of the opera, on Feb. 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m. and March 1 at 3 p.m. in the Theatre Auditorium in the John Aird Centre on Laurier’s Waterloo campus. The production was directed by Liza Balkan and conducted by Associate Professor Kira Omelchenko and performed by nine singers, chorus and chamber orchestra – all Laurier students. This video production was shot by Chestnut Hall Music at the final dress rehearsal on February 26 at 7:30 pm. Copyright 2020 Stephanie Martin, All Rights Reserved On January 30, 2020, Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, HWNC-BC, represented the New Mexico Nurses Association and New Mexico nurses at the 54th New Mexico Legislature Second Session 2020. Senator Elizabeth “Liz” Stephanics read the Senate Memorial 22 that declared 2020 the "International Year of the Nurse and Midwife" recognizing the impact of nurses and midwives on the health care of all New Mexicans. New Mexico Senators Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics, Gay G. Keran, Gerald Ortiz Pino, Mary Kay Papen, Shannon D. Pinto, and Mimi Stewart introduced the Senate Memorial.
Photo top left: NIGH International Co-Director Dr. Barbara Dossey with New Mexico Senator Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics receiving the New Mexico Senate Memorial 22. Photo Top Right: Dr. Barbara Dossey holds the New Mexico Senate Memorial 22 that declares 2020 the "International Year of the Nurse and Midwife" recognizing the impact of nurses and midwives on the health care of all New Mexicans. Celebrating the Year of the Nurse & the Midwife & Nightingale Bicentenary Featuring our recent closing keynote — shared by Dr. Deva-Marie Beck, International Co-Director of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health — in London, UK, at the Royal College of Physicians, presented to an audience of 300 Delegates — Nursing & Midwifery leaders from every region of the Commonwealth. Highlighted at the 5th Commonwealth Nurses & Midwives Federation Conference on March 7, 2020. Also featured in London — the Premiere of 'In Florence Nightingale's Own Words' celebrating 2020! Opening video image provided by 2020 CNMF Conference Delegate Yuko Leong, used with permission.
Keynote video from Wayne Kines, in NIGH's archives. GRANTED LEADING NGO STATUS AT THE UN!On July 26, 2018, we were granted 'Special Consultative Status' with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC). Representing the grassroots-to-global movement of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health, our Canadian NGO — 'NIGH World' — received this leading UN NGO 'Status' after more than a decade of work within the arenas of United Nations organizations and agencies. This ‘Special Consultative’ relationship is the principal means by which UN ECOSOC receives input from NGO voices into its deliberations at official public meetings — as well as in UN international conferences and related preparatory meetings. Each year, all NGOs holding ‘Consultative Status’ receive the provisional agenda of ECOSOC. They then have certain privileges to officially place items on the agenda of ECOSOC. They may also attend official meetings, where they may submit written statements and make oral presentations to governments. Based on our current work and the United Nations experience of many on our Core Leadership Team and UN NGO representatives, we will now be focused on receiving input — about achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — from our colleagues across the world — then to share their voices of grassroots knowledge at global levels —in many more ways. Image Credits: Top left: Celebratory blue fireworks display from Wikimedia by photographer Neurovelho - used with the GNU Free Documentation License. Middle: UN SDGs Colour Wheel used with Guidelines attribution from UN.org. Bottom: The Economic & Social Council at UN Headquarters in New York City. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe, used with required attribution to UN.org.
An Official United Nations Parallel Event / Co-Sponsored by ICN & NIGH We have the knowledge. We have the science. We have the people. But somehow we don't make the impact and that's the issue!
Government departments and agencies and academic bodies — including the World Health Organization (WHO) — often call on her to speak and consult on many issues surrounding nursing, health human resources, leadership, and health-care policy. She established the first WHO Collaborating Centre for Leadership Development in a hospital environment, which brought together nurse executives — from the Caribbean, Israel, Eastern Europe and Africa — to learn more about their role in leading a facility’s nursing services. She has also been a consultant on nursing projects in Israel, China, the Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, Hungary, Poland and the United States.
As NIGH’s executive coordinator and website developer, Dr. Beck is a multi-media communications strategist currently focused on the mobilization of public opinion and advocacy to increase concern for global health issues. In these roles, she develops online feature articles, videos and photo-essays — coordinating with nurses, midwives, students and media professionals alike. She is now aiming to empower and engage nurses, midwives and related students across the world to share their stories and their concerns with everybody else. Championing this ideas, Dr. Beck is developing — with NIGH's growing grassroots-to-global team — a participatory worldwide wave of media about how health and all the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals are achieved. Mobilizing public opinion to care is a critical factor in achieving a better world.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization, this timely work portrays the vital role of nurses and midwives who are essential to human health worldwide.
In 2008, photos from 56 nations were chosen from WHO's archives — 1950 to 2008 — by NIGH's International Co-Director Dr. Deva-Marie Beck. Collaborating with then WHO Chief Nursing Officer Dr. Jean Yan, Dr. Beck worked with a task force of nursing leaders from across the world to create this video — now available online in eight languages (Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish). This video illustrates the devoted and diverse daily work of nurses caring for others to be well and midwives caring for mothers to be well and their babies to be healthy. Spanning more than 60 years, this photo essay moves around the globe to the music of Natalie MacMaster, who gifted her composition — 'Julia's Waltz' — to this project. Andrew Kines was the Video Editor for all versions. The English and Mandarin versions were both premiered at a WHO Regional Conference convened at Shandong University in Jinan, China and many versions have since been showcased at WHO Regional Offices, WHO Collaborating Centres and other universities across the world — later all were made available online.
You can also watch this video in these language versions:
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