Another challenging year is now coming to an end. After COVID-19, still ongoing, all the EFN attention has been going to the war in Ukraine and the huge human tragedy that it brings with it. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes to escape violence and seek refuge, in their own country or abroad. As organisation, and as nurses, we have been trying to do our best to support those who are at the forefront taking care of those in need and ensure access to healthcare and promote peace through a unified nursing response. More than ever, we have seen how international cooperation and solidarity are vital to support nurses and all healthcare professionals in the frontline. In these difficult times, creating resilient healthcare systems is a fundamental starting point to support nurses and healthcare professionals at the frontline.
The health challenges at EU level makes it that it is so important to develop tools and mechanisms to address them, and we can say that the EFN, and its 36 National Nurses Associations, have had a very busy agenda over the last months, monitoring the many issues and challenges facing nurses and the nursing profession at all levels. And the EU has understood this need to listen to those who are at the frontline, namely through the new European Commission’s initiative – European Care Strategy, which will hopefully respond to the challenges of ageing and rising unmet care needs in the EU and Europe.
In 2023, the EFN will for sure follow up on this new development and continue to ensure every opportunity is taken to make nurses’ voices heard at EU level, next to continue working on a number of EU projects uniquely contributing the perspective of nurses as end-users in order to develop fit-for-purpose solutions that can be effectively implemented.
We would like to thank you all for your continued support to the EFN and the compassion and care delivered by EU nurses every day. We wish you all a relaxing holiday season and hope that the new year will bring significant changes and an optimistic future.