Celebrate World Health Day by honouring the work of nurses and midwives

Today is World Health Day.

The theme of this United Nations celebration in the difficult year of 2020, which had been designated the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife by the United Nations, is “celebrate nurses and midwives.”

“Nurses and other health workers are at the forefront of COVID-19 response — providing high quality, respectful treatment and care, leading community dialogue to address fears and questions and … collecting data for clinical studies,” the World Health Organization says. “Quite simply, without nurses, there would be no response.”

The WHO has made a series of recommendations throughout the year to strengthen of the nursing and midwifery workforce and calls for the support of people everywhere on World Health Day to ensure that the nursing and midwifery workforces are strong enough to ensure that everyone, everywhere gets the healthcare they need.

From its inception at the First Health Assembly in 1948 and since taking effect in 1950, the celebration has aimed to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organization.

This has brought to light important health issues such as mental health, maternal and child care, and climate change. The celebration is marked by activities which extend beyond the day itself and serves as an opportunity to focus worldwide attention on these important aspects of global health.

For more information, visit https://www.who.int/news-room/campaigns/world-health-day/world-health-day-2020