After 2 years of online meetings due to COVID-19 pandemic, the EFN National Nurses Associations, representing over 3 million EU nurses, met physically for the first time on 13-14 October 2022, in Slovenia, for the Autumn EFN General Assembly.
The EFN Members welcomed the Slovenia Chief Nursing Officer, Mojca Dobnik, who raised the current ongoing key policy topics for nurses in Slovenia, as shortage of nurses, digitalisation, quality and safety.
Within the framework of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the EFN stresses the importance of the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) for the delivery of positive health outcomes. The EFN APN Working Group presented to the EFN members some concrete outcomes, including the results of the meta-analysis of the data collected from the 36 EFN members. These outcomes were discussed within the three EFN Committees (Professional, Workforce, Public Policy Committees), leading to a short, medium and long-term EU APN Strategy in the EU and Europe. As stated in EFN Workforce Matrix 3+1, APN has a key role to play in building the resilience of the health and care system in the EU and Europe. As such, the EFN will continue developing this key topic with its members.
With the ongoing war in Ukraine, the EFN, ICN and the Polish Nurses Association have been collaborating closely to support the Ukrainian nurses, namely by putting in place bridging courses for the Ukraine nurses’ refugees in Poland; with a successful outcome, with the full agreement among the main stakeholders in the Polish Nursing Community of the general points for the training of the Ukrainian nurses, and the Health Ministry that is now developing a new legislation enabling the implementation of the new bridging program. It is key to invest in Ukrainian nurses and nursing as it will strengthen the leadership and development of the nursing profession as part of the reconstruction of the Ukrainian healthcare eco-system after the end of the hostilities.
Furthermore, as part of EFN Strategic and Operational Lobby Plan 2021-2027, the EFN Members discussed and approved three key Policy Statements: 1/ Revised EFN Policy Statement on Planetary Health, including nurses’ education component; 2/ EFN Policy Statement on ILO Guidance of Nursing Profession Data; 3/ EFN Policy Statement on European Care Strategy.
Finally, the EFN Members shared information on the activities/best practices/experiences related to education, working conditions and quality & safety related to long-term care, including digitalisation, to support the design of the Council Recommendation on Long-term care, within the context of the new European Care Strategy. It is crucial that the developed EU health policies reflect the nurse’s expertise to better structure fit-for-purpose solutions and initiatives in the healthcare sector. We still have many challenges ahead affecting the nurses’ frontline throughout the EU, but the EFN Members work jointly to bring to the attention of the EU policy makers at national & EU level the nurses EU added value impacting on health and social care ecosystems, namely on nursing education, workforce and quality & safety, including digitalisation.
