Meeting in Warsaw on 15-17 September 2016, on the occasion of the 13th Congress of Polish Nurses, the Polish Regulators, Union and Association gave a clear message to the Minister of health: “Do not lower down the nursing education with your new education reforms in Poland”. The EFN Secretary General, Paul De Raeve, added that Poland, since 2004 EU enlargement, has made enormous progress in upscaling nurses with millions of EU funds, and therefore, it is unacceptable to move nursing education back to the Communist regime. He also stressed the importance of compliance with the EU Directive 2013/55/EU and putting barriers in place for free movement (keeping nurses in Poland) would be the wrong signal to the Polish society, which highly supports nurses.
The Polish nursing education needs to stay in a strong position to deliver safe and high quality care. Therefore, it is crucial to have high qualified nurses, as research indicates (Aiken, 2012) “Nursing education levels to deliver high quality care is a critical condition for a safe and effective health and social care ecosystem through the EU”. Poland needs to build further on its positive achievements; a stronger position of nurses, women, in society, better salaries, better working conditions, although we all realise it is just the start of a process, not the end. So any proposal to turn back all these achievements is unhelpful for society!
“I therefore strongly hope that the polish citizens, patients and other health professionals, doctors, GPs, keep on supporting the nurses’ education at bachelor’s level” expressed the EFN Secretary General.