Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson

The 8th Congress of the European Nurse Directors Association (ENDA)

“Tomorrow’s Nurse- Taking the lead”

Grand Hotel Reykjavík, 3 October 2007

Dear Congress Guests!

I welcome you all here today. It is a great pleasure for me to address this 8th Congress of the European Nurse Directors Association and the first one to be held here in Iceland.

I am delighted see that such a large group of Nurse Directors, Nurse Leaders and Nurse Educators from across Europe have considered it worthwhile to visit our country and confer for these three coming days.

It is obvious from the program that you will have a full agenda that will include topics like Nursing Leadership and Education, Migration of Nurses, Work Environment that was also the topic of the International Nurses Day this year, Work Development within the Nursing profession and Nursing Research. All of which are of great importance to Nurse Leaders across Europe.

Dear Congress Guests!

One of the aims of ENDA is to promote nursing leadership and to strengthen nursing contribution to policy making in healthcare management in Europe.

As I have mentioned on other occasions, Nurses have always been highly regarded in the Icelandic society and their contribution to the Health Care Service has been very valuable. We have Nurses in the top layer of the organizational charts in all Health Care Institutions and also within the Icelandic Parliament, County Councils and within the Ministry of Health. Icelandic Nurses have therefore always been able to ensure that their education and experience influence decision making and policy making in the health care system.

Another aim of ENDA is to influence nursing education.

In Iceland we have always been so fortunate to have a well educated and progressive nursing profession. We were one of the first countries in Europe to provide a Bachelor degree program in Nursing and one of the first to move the Nurse education from Nursing Schools into Universities. Just yesterday I attend the 30^th graduation anniversary of the first cohort who graduated with B.S. degree in Nursing in Iceland.

I believe that investing in the workforce is essential to enable health systems to achieve health goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and respond to new challenges. The quality and effectiveness of health services also depend on health workers knowledge and skills.

In Iceland, as in other European countries, the ageing population is a major demographic trend. A rise in chronic health problems in ageing populations has increased the demand for health workers.

In 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) identified the critical shortage of nurses as a priority item for action.

This was also one of the topics discussed at the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in Belgrade last September. The concern there was that the health workforce is ageing in many countries in the Region. For example in Iceland the average age of employed nurses is 41-45 years, this same trend can be seen in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and France. In the United Kingdom, one in five nurses is aged 50 or more and nearly half are over 40; projections for 2010-2011 estimate that there will be 14 000 fewer qualified nurses than required. In the next decade, there will be demands for 7000 more nurses in the Netherlands, 3300 in Norway and 3000 in Switzerland.

As a consequence of the health workforce shortage, health workers represent an increasingly large component of Migration flow. The international recruitment of health workers has increased in some countries to meet health-sectors shortage, but often this merely transfers the shortages to other countries. In Europe, many countries, particularly in the central and eastern parts of the Region are unable to retain the health workers they train. At the same time, western European countries actively recruit health workers from other countries.

Over the last 30 years, the number of foreign-trained health professionals in western European countries has increased considerably. WHO has collected data on this movement and between 1970 and 2005, for example, the proportion of such professionals rose from 1% to 6% of the total in France and the Netherlands, and from 3% to 11% in Denmark.

Dear Congress guests!

You will also be discussingthe work environment of Nurses. I understand that the theme of the International Nurses Daythis year was positive practice environment that emphasized how to advance positive and supportive work environment that supports excellence and have the power to attract and keep nurses.

Unhealthy work environments affect health professionals through the stress of heavy workloads, long hours, low professional status and variety of workplace hazards. Evidence indicates that “long periods of job strain increase sick time, conflict, job dissatisfaction, turnover and inefficiency”.

Employers have begun to realize that positive changes in the work environment result in a higher employee retention rate.

Finally I want to mention the aim of ENDA to promote nursing research.

In Iceland, nursing research has developed rapidly during the last decade. ButInternational cooperation and sharing of practical experience and evidence from nursing research is of utmost importance to all nations, especially a small one like Iceland. 

Sharing ideas, knowledge and experience in a Congress like this one will move us forward towards our goals for improved Quality Nursing Care. 

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all those that have organized this Congress. I have no doubt that this will be an exciting, memorable and fruitful congress, and that it will provide an active forum for presentations and discussions on the challenges facing nursing today and those of nursing leadership within the European Health Care System.

I hope that you will have enlightening and interesting days here in Iceland and a safe journey back. 

Thank you.

Talað orð gildir.