On 10-11 April 2014 the EFN celebrated its 100th EFN General Assembly in Brussels and the new EFN President, Ms Marianne Sipilä, opened and chaired her first meeting with all EFN members.
In view of the next European elections of May 2014 and the role that nurses will play in the next five years, the MEP Jean Lambert (Greens, UK) was invited to join the meeting to present her views on the health policies at EU level, highlighting in particular how nurses can influence the design of EU legislation and the debate on the healthcare system.
From DG Sanco, Martin Seychell, Deputy Director-General, presented the key EU political priorities regarding quality & safety and EU health workforce, pointing out the relevant role that nurses play within the healthcare system reform. Due to the high interest of EFN to these topics, a very active and fruitful debate took place and the EFN members expressed their political views regarding the policies proposed and actions taken by DG Sanco.
Thanks to the EFN members’ contributions and experiences, the EFN will continue being pro-active in advocating for quality and safety with the evidence at hand. When addressing the healthcare system reforms, it is necessary to foresee a more central role of the nurses, who have a fundamental part to play in achieving health care improvements, patient-centred care and continuity of care. Therefore, a highly skilled nursing workforce is needed in all EU Members States.
This is linked also to the increasing importance that eHealth is playing in the health and social care systems and consequently to the role that health professionals play, using eHealth services. With this regard, the EFN is coordinating the ENS4Care project (www.ens4care.eu), whose aim is to develop evidence-based guidelines for nursing and social care on eHealth services. More than hundred good practices across the EU have been collected, proving that some excellent examples exist in the fields of prevention, clinical practice, advanced roles, integrated care and nurse ePrescribing.