The Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives (SKSaPA), under the auspices of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Federation of Nurses Associations and the Minister of Health, Tomáš Drucker, started its National Conference with international participation entitled “Nursing and Midwifery in the process of change”, taking place in High Tatras, on 23-24 September 2016.
Bringing together around 150 nurses and midwives together with invited guests from Slovakia and abroad, the conference is providing an unique opportunity for acquiring new knowledge in Nursing and Midwifery, and for sharing experience and knowledge with key players. “The Conference is so important for nursing in Slovakia from a strategic point of view to realise where we are and where we are going!” said Iveta Lazorova, President of Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives.
Invited as keynote speaker to discuss the topic of competences and education in the area of nursing, EFN Secretary General, Paul De Raeve, took this opportunity to stress how important Slovak nurses are in the development of nursing and the nursing profession in their country. “An important aspect of the Directive 2005/36/EC, modernised by Directive 2013/55/EU, is that nurses are expected to be proficient, skilled and confident in leading and organising nursing care. Furthermore, qualified nurses are demanded to have full responsibility over their practice and administration of their work. This constitutes not only a basis for a successful system change, which can be developed much further at the European level, but also attributes important key roles to the nurses within the health care system such as coaching, leading and evaluating care outcomes”, expressed Paul De Raeve.
Finally, the EFN Secretary General thanked the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, a member of EFN, for organising such an important event and greeted the colleagues from Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic and Ukraine for their hard work in making nurses and the nursing profession have a stronger voice and a key role to play in the social and health policies at national and European levels.
