February 22, 2017 | NLN CEO Update on Global Vision

The French say that the more things change, the more they remain the same (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose). And things certainly have changed for health care and for our view of the nurse’s role as citizen of the international community. Today, nurses require a global worldview and must share a commitment to engage in culturally responsive health care, here at home and around the world. Oceans and borders are no longer barriers to the transmission of infectious disease or to social media. People are on the move: refugees and immigrants, including health care providers from all corners of the earth.

So, amidst this perpetual change, what is it exactly that remains the same? I would say that it’s clearly nursing’s commitment to caring that remains the constant, along with the other core values of the NLN – excellence, integrity, and diversity and inclusion. Without the consistent reminder of these core values, things would be even more confusing than, at times, they seem.

Allow me to share some recent headlines from NLN Testing Services that reflect the League’s commitment to best practices in assessment and evaluation.

In my Member Update from two weeks ago, I told you about our soon-to-be-published NLN “Vision for Expanding US Nursing Education for Global Health Engagement.” This document, which I’m confident will have a seminal place in nursing education going forward, provides a context for where we are in relation to global health and background with regard to demographic change and global and local health disparities. It presents a lucid picture of where we are now in terms of faculty and student preparation, and a vision of future possibilities, with a series of recommendations for nursing programs – for administrators and for faculty and for the NLN.

Along the way there is a discussion of my new favorite word – glocal – which Virginia Rowthorne discussed in 2015 in Annals of Global Health: “Having a global understanding of transnational health issues, social determinants, and solutions while using the perspectives to address health care needs at the local level.”

All NLN presidents have a passion that underlies their work. For Dr. Anne Bavier, global health is the signature issue that represents her major NLN concerns, challenges, and opportunities. This new vision statement captures a part of Anne’s vision for the global NLN work of the future.

The vision includes a series of recommendations that the NLN is committed to fulfill. We will continue to provide professional development around global engagement. We will recommend the integration of global competencies into curricula for students in undergraduate and graduate nursing education programs. We will identify a panel of qualified experts to serve as global scholars. We will create a database of nursing education programs that are exemplars of global engagement. We will update faculty resources for global experiences. And we will create criteria and seek applications for Centers of Excellence in Global Health Education. I am so excited about the prospect of welcoming the first cohort of these Centers of Excellence at a future NLN Education Summit.

As you may know, the NLN recently opened the Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) program to global testers. We have affiliated with CGFNS International, Inc. for validation of eligibility credentials for potential candidates from the international community, and nurse educators in Estonia, the Bahamas, and Germany have already taken the CNE exam – bringing the NLN nurse educator community into the global arena.

And, importantly, we are active participants in the International Council of Nurses (ICN). In 2009, ICN responded to our request to provide a forum to address nursing educational issues worldwide with the establishment of the ICN Education Network (ICN EN). Today the ICN EN comprises 2,000-plus members from more than 100 countries, creating opportunities for nurse educators to network and address common issues regarding nursing education and practice. You can join today, for free.

Virginia Adams, director of the NLN Center for Diversity and Global Initiatives, is founding chair of the ICN EN. In fact the vision statement, Vision for Expanding US Nursing Education for Global Health Engagement, was the co-creation of Drs. Anne Bavier and Virginia Adams, along with a team of global scholars and the NLN Board of Governors (BOG). This dynamic working group stretched toward excellence – recall that our fourth NLN core value is excellence: co-creating and implementing transformative strategies with daring ingenuity.

Thank you, Anne, Virginia, the NLN BOG, and your distinguished panel for your work on this remarkable document. It’s a document whose time is now, for the times to come and for the world that we co-create.

Next Issue of the NLN Member Update: Wednesday, March 8, 2017. View previous issues of NLN Member Update »