The One Health Conference 2023 represents a great opportunity to discuss the future of ‘One Health’ in Europe. In the last few years, we realized that the health of people, animals and the environment are not to be considered separate, but rather it is necessary to treat them with a “One Health” approach. In this regard, the One Health Conference, focused on addressing the important issues for building the One Health approach in Europe.
The climate change andits devastating effects for the earth and for human health have been one of the key topics of the One Health conference. “The voice of the health communities needs to be heard” has been the key message of Dr. María Neira, Director Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO, that during the Conference, stressed a lot on the importance to engage the health communities and healthcare professionals in the discussion as key actors for having a clear view on what happens frontline.
In this context, the role of nurses is essential. As the closest healthcare professionals to patients, they can have a vital contribution in raising people’s awareness of this fundamental topic and in disseminating the correct information, trying to break down rampant misinformation.
Ms. Claire Bury, Deputy Director General, DG Health and Food Safety, European Commission, stated: “the objective of the EU is to strengthen the surveillance and the warning system”. In this regard, several tools have been put in place such as the Regulation on the serious cross-borders threats to health. In that, data play a key role in establishing how to act for the future and how to manage decision making.
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Assistant Director General at the WHO, leading the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence – One Health Surveillance, global perspective and challenges, proposed the “Defining collaborative surveillance” that gives an overview on the complex challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and on other major health emergencies, which emphasize the need to rethink our approach to surveillance, while building upon the momentum of substantive investments in public health capacity in recent year.
Another key topic covered during the conference was the AMR. Cooperation, collaboration and communication were the 3 points on which all the experts of this panel, with different backgrounds, agreed.
In this context, nurses have a crucial role to play in this, mainly in two key areas: informing and motivating the public; and, preventing and managing the infections. As nurses have closer and more frequent contact with patients and carers, and undertake the role of care coordinator, they are ideally placed to lead antimicrobial resistance reduction and antibiotic stewardship programmes.
The EFN truly believe that, in order to reach better results, it need to be more pragmatic and more actions oriented. To achieve this goal, it need to implement actions that reflect nurses’ voice.
Nurses really know what at the frontline happens, so engage them, means reaching better results and better health for all.
Nurses voice matters!