Today, it is the International Women’s Day – a very special occasion in which EFN wants to celebrate not only all the women, but also all the nurses who are women and who represents the majority of the nursing profession.
In the healthcare sector, women play a key role, especially in the nursing profession. Indeed, the most of nurses, who every day dedicate their life for the patients’ well-being, are women. Among the nursing workforce, women are 92% of the total.
In the last years, the number of nurses who are leaving the profession is increasing more and more. The nursing profession has lots of issue related to working conditions, mental health and to the lack of the work-life balance. It is becoming increasingly less attractive than other professions and lots of nurses, above all among the young generation, is leaving the profession massively.
From an EFN perspective, it is essential to protect, defend and listen to them in order to better understand how to improve this situation for the well-being of nurses, but also for guarantying the resilience of the healthcare ecosystem.
Another key issue for women and so for nurses is the violence against them – in this case, the violence in the workplace. At this regard, in April 2021, EFN published a Position Statement on Violence and Harassment Against Nurses with the aim to shed the lights on all the risks to which nurses are exposed in their frontline job to protect and save lives.
An important step forward is the jointly adoption by the Committees on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) the interim report on EU accession to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). Nevertheless, the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession is still awaiting for the Parliament’s vote, but the Swedish Council Presidency has made it one of its priorities. This strengthened form of protection for women is essential for nurses who are forced to work every day in exhausting working conditions and they are subjected to various forms of violence and abuse.
In this special day, EFN wants to express all its gratitude to all the women/nurses who every day carry out their job with tireless dedication and professionalism.
Nurses’ voice matters, women nurses’ voice matters… celebrate them every day, not only today!