Nurses’ Day 2015: launch of toolkit for health system financing

Guidance to help engage nurses in health system financing is being launched today in celebration of International Nurses’ Day.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) toolkit provides an overview of global healthcare financing and offers guidance for nurses and policymakers on how best to achieve equitable access to effective and affordable healthcare services.

It brings together examples from around the world of how the decisions nurses make every day can make a ‘significant difference in the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire system.’

The theme of this year’s annual ICN event being held on Florence Nightingale’s birthday is: ‘Nurses: A force for change: care effective, cost effective.’

Nurses, as the single largest group of health professionals, reach people that other practitioners never see both in urban and rural or remote communities, and are uniquely placed to reduce health costs and improve quality of care, the ICN says.

The kit includes action points for nurses at workplace and national levels such as finding out about the cost of essential equipment in the clinical setting and looking at cost constraints nationally.

ICN chief executive officer David Benton said: ‘Nurses are well positioned to drive improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.’

The kit can be downloaded from the ICN website.