Nurses around the world celebrate the international Nurses Day' every May 12th, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's Birth. The aim of the day is to celebrate nursing and to bring awareness of the importance of the nurses' work to as many people as possible.

The theme for this year as established by the International Council of Nurses is: `Nurses: A force for change: Improving health systems' resilience.'

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, in a statement to mark the occasion said, "nurses are the largest profession in the health workforce. The nursing profession is well positioned to drive efficiency and effectiveness improvements while providing quality care and attaining optimal patient outcomes.

"Nurses are at the core of attaining the best quality, access, and cost balance. It is therefore essential that nurses and policy makers focus on the nursing role in care effective and cost effective healthcare systems as a key priority and determinant for achieving equity, delivering universal health coverage and ultimately improving health outcomes globally."

The Union said that the need for strong and resilient health systems able to respond effectively to challenges is significant to realising the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each nurse can help to strengthen health systems around the world. "As a member of the single largest group of health professionals, with a presence in all settings, nurses can make an enormous impact on the resilience of health systems."

"Every decision that each nurse make irrespective of the place of work can make a significant difference in the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire system. This year's theme establishes that pro-active actions need to be taken in order to strengthen and improve health systems around the world," the Union said.

The theme leverages the contribution that nurses can make and acknowledges that as a profession, nurses have an influential role within the health care systems. "In short, global health cannot be achieved without nurses and without their proactive contributions and participation at all levels of the healthcare system."

"Good quality care and patient safety are at the core of Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses' (MUMN) vision: Communities demand excellence of nurses in patient care.," it said.

"In turn, nurses deserve that their working conditions and pay be commensurate with the quality of their care. For these reasons, and more, the MUMN is committed to a) improve the workplace safety for nurses, b) enhance nurses' professional status, c) promote safe, cost effective and healthy workplaces; d) strengthen health systems and improving patient safety."

The MUMN Council wished all the Nurses and Nursing Students a Happy Nurses' Day. Together with other International Nursing Organisations the MUMN said that it will emphasise the importance of the nurses' role and activities in order to render a quality service to their patients and clients.

The MUMN also reaffirmed its pledge to "support nurses globally and work towards the goal of ensuring that every patient or client will receive safe nursing care and that universal access to health services is a reality for all."

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