Introduction
The legacy of Janet Florence Nightingale, a pioneer of nursing who became famous for her social reforms, helped shape healthcare as it is known today. A century after her death, medical professionals all over the world are still faced with the same challenge of improving the quality of medical care. The United Nations Millennium Development goals were established as a global project to address some of the important issues, such as disease and poverty in the poorest nations. The achievement of the UN Millennium Development goals is only possible if the role of nursing leaders as agents of change is recognized.
Has Florence Nightingale’s legacy influenced your perception of the Millennium Goals?
Nightingale was the first to pioneer nursing as a profession and showed the role nurses can play as agents of change. Nightingale used her position during the Crimean War to improve hospital conditions, which significantly reduced mortality rates. Nightingale’s legacy showed me the importance of leadership in the process of change. The achievement of Millennium Goals depends on the ability of nurses to lead and apply their expertise to inspire other health care professionals to deliver superior performance.
Choose three-millennium goals that you can advance in your role as a nurse. Explain these goals and state how you plan to advance each of the goals.
Birth asphyxia remains a major concern in developing countries, with seven deaths per 1000 births caused by asphyxia, compared to less than one death in developed countries (World Health Organization, 2006, p.3). In order to reduce child mortality, it is important to create and sustain national programs to reduce childhood mortality rates and to share the technology and knowledge across all nations. As a nurse, I can share my knowledge and expertise with policy-makers, and help raise awareness about the issue.
Another goal is to improve maternal health and improve reproductive health care accessibility. As a nurse, I need to use the best evidence-based practices and help share knowledge with other nurses. I can contribute to the achievement of this goal by being a knowledgeable consumer of research and using it in evidence-based practice.
A third goal is combating HIV/AIDS. As a nurse, I need to help raise awareness about the issue of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. It is important to advocate for the use of existing technologies and practices in the developing nations most suffering from these diseases.
Give two to three examples of how your community of nurses collectively or individually can help advance the UN Goals.
Nurses are the largest group of health care providers (Abood, 2007, para. 13), and if we can unite our forces, we can bring change on the numbers alone. Nightingale’s legacy reminds me of the fact that nursing leaders are the driving force behind the continuous process of improving the quality of health care services. It is important to network with other nurses and develop communication skills to share knowledge and obtain support. Many of the practicing nurses face the same problems and are the first to see the impact of health policy on individual patients (Abood, 2007, para. 2). As such, nurses should use their expert power to put the most important issues forward and help policy-makers make informed decisions. In order to advance the UN Millennium Goals, it is important to educate nursing leaders who will be able to engage others and unite them towards achieving a common goal.
References
Abood, S. (2007). Influencing Health Care in the Legislative Arena. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(1), manuscript 2. Web.
World Health Organization (2006). Neonatal and Perinatal Mortality. Web.