WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTE
REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC BUREAU REGIONAL DU PACIFIQUE OCCIDENTAL
REGIONAL COMMITTEE Sixty-fifth session Manila, Philippines 13–17 October 2014 Agenda item 15
WPR/RC65/NGO/6 15 October 2014 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
STATEMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF NURSES Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the International Council of Nurses (ICN). ICN is pleased to see the progress made by WHO and Member States and supports the commitment to achieve universal health coverage. There is no doubt that equitable access to necessary health services of good quality requires an adequate number of appropriately prepared nurses with sufficiently expansive scopes of practice to meet contemporary health needs. ICN supports all four of the areas of actions taken and strongly agree with the importance of appropriate legislation and regulation for human resources for health. Representing the more than 16 million nurses worldwide, ICN would like to stress that nurses are a critical component and essential to the achievement of universal health coverage. Nurses are the largest group of health care professionals and often the only health worker available to the population. Investing in nursing will help to optimise their functioning and support equitable access to health care services including reaching the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society. Further, evidence shows that investing nursing can help healthcare systems to be more effective and efficient. In addition to appropriately implementing proven cost-effective interventions, increased nurse staffing is associated with reduced healthcare cost and increased productivity. The patient and person centredness of nursing and their coordination and management role in the healthcare team are some examples of additional values of nurses in providing more integrated services. The World H ealth Assembly has repeatedly recognised that nurses and midwives are essential to the development of quality health policy and the implementation of effective health interventions. ICN requests WHO and governments to ensure full and active involvement of nurses in policy settings to optimise nursing potential and maximise their expertise so as to drive forward achievement of universal health coverage. Thank you.