On 8 October, the President and Executive Board of the Finnish Nurses Associations came to Brussels for an official visit to meet public officials of the European Institutions and to better understand the EU policy process. In the EFN Brussels office, 26 nurses were updated on the EFN’s priorities, mainly nursing education, workforce for health, e-Health, and quality and safety. At a crucial time in the modernisation of Directive 36, the Finnish nurses were astonished when they realised how difficult the negotiation process is due to the political constraints on setting upgraded education requirements for the recognition of nurses’ qualifications at European level.
Although the Finnish national priorities go beyond upgrading the education requirements of nurses (which are already in place), they acknowledged the need to call on their MEPs to ensure that the higher requirements are ensured for a reliable, equitable and safe framework of free movement of nurses across Member States. They met the Finnish MEP Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN following Directive 36 in the European Parliament and updated her on the EFN’s concerns and on the important developments on advanced nursing roles in Finland.
The EFN encourages EFN members to come to Brussels to gather a better understanding of the importance of the EU lobby process and its ultimate impact on their daily work at national level.