Supported by the EU Presidency of Luxembourg, the conference on “Lessons learned for public health from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa” that is taking place in Luxembourg from 12 to 14 October is gathering politicians, NGOs, and health workforces to discuss how to improve preparedness and response in the EU for future outbreaks.
Invited to participate as a panellist with other stakeholders that had been contributing crucially during the Ebola outbreak, the EFN General Secretary, Paul De Raeve, presented the work the EFN has done at EU level to bring the attention of the EU policy decision makers on what is the daily reality for the nurses dealing with Ebola patients.
Over the last year, the EFN participated as expert on several meetings with the EU Commission, and undertook an EU survey which results are outlined in a report that identifies gaps and needs of all nurses in relation to Ebola and Infection Diseases of High Consequence (IDHC) and brings in recommendations to design capacity building seminars for nurses in order to achieve better preparedness. In all this process, the EFN wanted to make sure that the key EU decision makers and stakeholders at EU and national levels understand how important the mobilisation of sufficient resources and appropriate staffing for infection control is; that it is crucial to engage nurses at all levels of policy design, including the development of evidence based protocols, care pathways and materials in order to ensure their needs are well covered; and essential to get better prepared and ensure availability of education, training, protocols, use of new technology for improved communication, relevant protective equipment, and that Ebola reference centres are identified and all the public and health professionals informed about them.
The EFN General Secretary stated that: “We are not prepared, unless we are all prepared! We have now a precious opportunity to prepare ourselves and get our health workforce and health systems ready. Listen to those that are going to the field and make sure their needs are covered.”
Nurses are the real heroes of this recent Ebola outbreak, being at the frontline and taking care of the patients
with Ebola 24/7!”