The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation, and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), have partnered to hold the first board meeting of ‘Nursing Now Qatar’, part of a global campaign run in collaboration with the International Council of Nurses and World Health Organisation (WHO).

Nursing Now Qatar, which was launched earlier this year during the Middle East Forum for Quality and Safety in Healthcare held in Doha, supports the global ‘Nursing Now’ campaign, which aims to improve healthcare globally by raising the profile and status of nurses worldwide, influence policymakers, and support nurses to lead, learn, and build a global movement.

The Nursing Now Qatar board brings together senior representatives of HMC, WISH, Primary Health Care Corporation, Sidra Medicine, Al Ahli Hospital, and the University of Calgary in Qatar. During its inaugural meeting, which was held at the Qatar Rehabilitation Institute within Hamad bin Khalifa Medical City, board members received an update on the Nursing Now global campaign, set terms of reference for Nursing Now Qatar, and set goals and timescales for initiatives and events to promote nursing in Qatar over the coming year.

Among the lined up initiatives of the local Nursing Now Qatar movement are public awareness campaigns, and a Nursing Now empowerment training programme for Qatari nurses during the Doha Healthcare Week this November in the lead up to the WISH 2018 summit.

WISH CEO Sultana Afdhal said they are delighted to co-organise the inaugural meeting of the initiative, which is the first of its kind in the Arabian Gulf region. She said that nurses and midwives make up half of the professional health workforce but they are often not enabled or supported to use their expertise to their full potential, which is an unfortunate waste of talent and resources.

Our goal is to empower nurses in Qatar, and ultimately every nurse anywhere in the world, to take up more leadership roles. We also hope that a larger number of Qataris choose nursing as a profession in the future.’

Dr Nicola Ryley, Chief Nursing Officer at HMC and co-chair of the Nursing Now Qatar board, added that nurses and midwives have a long tradition of leading change across the health services, demonstrating a passion for leadership and innovation to drive quality and performance improvements.

While these abilities are increasingly recognised across Qatar’s health sector, we need a concerted effort to ensure greater inter-professional respect and collaboration. We have an amazing cadre of nursing and midwifery professionals working in Qatar, and the Nursing Now campaign will help harness their wide range of experiences and skills more effectively.’

WISH 2018, set to take place on 13-14 November at the Qatar National Convention Centre, will include panel discussions on nursing. It will also host Chief Nursing Officers from around the world, and the global board meeting of Nursing Now on its sidelines.

Check out this link for more information about Nursing Now Qatar.