Annex C to CNR/11/FM/3
(Agenda Item 5.0)
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF NURSES
COUNCIL OF NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
Verbal Report of the Chief Executive Officer
Madam President, colleagues and friends. It is a great honour to stand before you today and deliver my first Chief Executive Officer report.
I know that my eleven predecessors, each during their time in office, achieved a great deal and I hope to be able to build on their success. But - I know that that success can only be possible through partnership with you. I therefore look forward to working with and for you.
Before starting my report let me share with you the reasons I am here. I came into this profession through personal experience. My father spent the last two years of his life in hospital and I saw first-hand the difference that excellent nursing care can and did make, not only to my father but to our family. The days that I spent with him and the discussions that I had with the nurses that cared for him had a profound impact on me. It resulted in me wanting to be a nurse. A decision I have never regretted.
I never thought that at the start of my nursing career I would occupy this position, but I can say with all honesty that from that first day to this I have been privileged to be part of a global family - the family of nurses that make a difference 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in every part of the world and under all conditions.
I also wish to share with you a rather intriguing set of facts which, until I was preparing for the interview for this post, I was completely unaware of. As you know the founding President of ICN was Ethel Bedford Fenwick. You may or not know that she was a Scot. She was born in a small Morayshire town called Elgin. Strangely enough and some of you will be able to tell from my accent, I am a Scot and was brought up and educated in Elgin. Mrs Bedford Fenwick was born in 1857 and I was born in 1957. She wore exquisite long skirts and, from time to time, I have been known to wear a kilt. I should say that that is where the coincidences end and this is where I turn to the business at hand.
As I look over the last two years, I can see that ICN has continued to support member associations and nurses around the world through its advocacy, policy and programme activity in each of our three pillars. I do not intend to recount all this activity, for that is included within the written report. I wish to use the time to
- highlight a small number of achievements;
- identify some concerns; and
- share my thoughts for the future
But first, I want to acknowledge my immediate predecessor and the extraordinary work that she did. I must thank Judith – the successes that I highlight are due to her, our President and Board, your endeavours and those of our staff and key stakeholders. As you can see from the report, the achievements are many and we all should be proud of the impact that ICN is having
- on nurses and nursing;
- on patients and populations; and
- on policy in health, education, labour and wider fields
Some of our work has an immediate effect and some actions will take a decade or more to be felt in your countries. But dealing with thechallenges of today and positioning nurses and nursing for those of tomorrow is at the heart of what we do.
Migration, workload and working conditions have been and will continue to be an important focus of our work. In the past two-years the work of the International Centre for Human Resources in Nursing has produced a number of highly informative papers and has developed its ‘Spotlight Interview Series’, capturing the knowledge and insights of a wide range of key opinion leaders. These endeavours are good examples of dealing with the issues of the here and now, while simultaneously laying the foundations for the future.
In collaboration with other disciplines and with funding from the Global Health Workforce Alliance, we have started the Positive Practice Environment Campaign. You will hear much more about this during the Congress programme session dedicated to this subject. This too is something that as an organisation we can take pride in – especially our leading role and innovative thinking.
In relation to regulation, an area which is under increasing threat of government intervention around the world, the introduction of the new regulation series has delivered the Model Act and Mutual Recognition toolkits, as well as the publication of the Nursing Continuum, offering an important bridge to the future.
Additionally, we have just completed a major research study into the Role and Identity of the Regulator. This provides important insights into how our practice is shaped and includes essential contact information, comparative analysis and a lexicon of terms. Again more information on this development is available as part of the congress programme. Regulation has been a focus of our activity from the inception of our organisation. It remains today a critical component in defining who we are as nurses and what we can achieve for those we serve in the provision of care, the prevention of disease and the promotion of health and wellbeing. This focus will continue in the future.
Tuberculosis, in particular MDR and Extensively Drug resistant or XDR-TB, is a major problem in many parts of the world. Worse still, for those with MDR or XDR- TB who do not receive treatment, face the bleak and likely prospect of death. Through the generous funding of Eli Lilly we have been able to establish a multi-country train the trainer programme, currently in 11 countries and ultimately covering 18 countries from Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. Just over 500 trainers have already been trained and they have then gone on to train nearly 6000 nurses. These nurses are essential to combating a challenge that if undertreated, ultimately threatens us all.
A final achievement I would like to mention is International Nurses Day. Each year IND gives us an opportunity to provide the public, politicians and the press with a glimpse of what nurses can do. National nurses associations use the additional profile that IND brings to propose and lever change. NNAs also use it to assist with their recruitment drives for members. As you know, this year the theme for IND was Nurses Leading Care Innovations. In all countries examples can be found. In all countries these innovations are making a difference and in all countries the energy, enthusiasm and expertise of our profession is helping move forward service redesign.
There are many more achievements but I will not elaborate on these at this time. I wish rather to turn now to some concerns.
Any concerns we might have need to be identified, shared and resolved together. ICN is its members and amongst you there is a great pool of talent. As David Benton I am the Chief Executive, but together we are ICN and together we have better solutions to the problems that our world faces. Hence, effective communication is essential.
Communication is not about who speaks the loudest just as inclusiveness is not just about a new membership model. Communication is about the way we work together. It requires people to speak out and to listen. It requires us to understand from the other person’s point of view. It requires us to use all our senses and to be sensitive and sensible. If we rely on just one sense sometimes we can be tricked – there are no black dots on the image on the left of the screen but sometimes our mind can be tricked into seeing or hearing what is not there. Communication is a high-order competence that we all need to perfect.
My grandmother told me when I was a child that you learn more by listening than by talking. Accordingly, I want to keep this report short, so there is an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to signal the way that I hope to work with you. We need to work together to constantly improve our communication with each other and our key stakeholders, if we are to be all we can be.
In addition to communication there is a global problem that I must mention - finance. The economic crisis has had an impact on individuals, families, communities and organisations. It is something that is affecting us in different parts of the world in very different ways. No one country or individual has all the pieces of the puzzle.
- We need to be diligent in our duty to track these developments;
- We need to be creative in our responses; and
- We must use our global network to ensure that threats identified, lessons learned or solutions found are quickly communicated to all our associations.
As I come to the end of this presentation I do want to speak about the future.
- I want to tell you about an exciting development;
- I want to remind you about the CNR survey; and
- I want to talk about working together.
The ICN website has more than 7 million hits per month – on average 25 000 per day. It has a wealth of material and was, when it was first developed, based on leading edge technology. Today that technology has long-since been superseded. Accordingly, we are in the process of updating our website and also creating a ‘members only’ area. The members’ area will provide additional features that will support you, including:
Closed chat-rooms that will be available to support some of our existing fora and offer the opportunity to bring members together to focus on key topics in a dynamic and interactive way.
A file transfer platform will allow us to share video messages on various issues and host the monthly mailing, providing members an additional access to this key resource.
Series of guidance briefings of specific value to our members: for example, how to get the most out of International Nurses Day; Using an ICN Board Member or Officer Visit to leverage change; and others that you feel would be on benefit.
Also there will be an area on staff portfolios and member profiles to better help you access the information and expertise that you need.
I hope to hear your thoughts on these ideas and suggestions for further content development. The members’ area will be established later this year but will evolve and develop over time in response to your needs.
Talking about needs, I wish to say a few words about the CNR Survey. I sent this to you as part of the April Monthly Mailing. Congratulations to New Zealand who were the first to return their response. Your responses will be analysed during the coming week and feed into the deliberations of the new Board who will be looking at the plan for the coming four years on Saturday, 4 July. Your input will shape priorities and provide potential topics to be addressed over the coming quadrennium. So if you have not completed the CNR survey please take a copy and complete and return it before the end of CNR on Tuesday.
Now, I am going to show you a short video clip.
What you have just seen are experts playing musical instruments crafted from the components of a car. Individually the musicians played interesting refrains. They contributed their expertise. Together they produced a wonderful melody. They became an orchestra.
So what has this to do with CNR or ICN?
Individually as national associations you have a superb contribution to make, but when we come together we achieve so much more. We draw and give energy to one other. We create synergy. And if we work very well together then not only do we have a melody that the whole world will listen to, but one that ultimately, like the instruments used in the commercial, can create something completely different. We move from being component parts into the means of transforming health care into the future
As we face the years ahead we need to find ways to evolve, to generate synergy and indeed harness the energy that nurses and nursing can bring to the challenges we will face. Indeed, we need to be the engines of that change.
Through our global voice and dynamic, coordinated force we will be capable of exploiting the opportunities that the changing needs of society will bring. As a profession we will continue to develop, and as such we will be the subject of change.
But if we are to ensure people are healthy, patients have access to quality care and that our profession is one we are proud of and that meets contemporary health needs, then we must be the architects of that change.
The CEO report is about accountability. You can only be accountable if you are prepared to listen and answer the questions of those that give you your mandate. I look forward to your comments, challenges, suggestions and questions.
Madam President, this ends my report. Thank you.
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