2024 is now coming to an end. This year was another challenging year for the European nursing workforce, with the persistent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing exodus of frontline nurses from the nursing profession. Therefore, for 2025, and more than ever, the EFN is calling on the EU and the National Governments to invest in nursing education and strategies for recruitment and retention, which is a vital pillar to ensuring the building of a healthier, safer, fairer, resilient and more sustainable healthcare systems with capacity for any unexpected health crises. There is an urgent need to invest in the EU healthcare workforce, and more importantly in frontline nurses. A lot has been done, but a lot remains to be done to make sure we have sufficient nurses at the bedside and in the community to make healthcare systems resilient.
For the EFN, 2024 has been a year of intense lobby work, namely with the Belgium EU Presidency and its focus on health, where the EFN took all the opportunities to lobby EPSCO and building strong alliances with the EU Health Stakeholders, the EU policy- and decision makers making sure that health and nurses are kept high in the political agenda, and that nurses’ voice is heard and taken into account in the policies’ developments and decisions taken.
The EFN will continue to lobby the EU Institutions in 2025, taking the opportunity of this new 5-year mandate to make change happen. It is key to develop and foster the cooperation and dialogue between all the relevant parties, each with their key role, including nurses, whose contribution underpins the resilience of healthcare systems.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your collaboration and continued support to the nurses throughout this year and years to come. We look forward to continuing our alliance in 2025.
We wish you all a peaceful holiday and a successful year ahead.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!