The 113 nurses in the Cook Islands will be celebrating International Nurses Day with special birthday cakes today and a church service at the LDS church in Avarua on Sunday.

Teio Kea, the new president for the Cook Islands Nurses Association, said International Nurses Day is a day to commemorate their founder Florence Nightingale who cared for the wounded.

“Our Nursing Association members across the nation are commemorating and celebrating this important day, and working together to chart the future direction of nursing in order to meet the needs of the new normal as well as the Sustainable Development Goals, Universal Health Coverage, and health for all,” said Kea.

The theme for this year’s International Nurses Day is “Our Nurses, our Future”.

“Our Nurses, Our Future sets out for nursing in the future in order to address the global health challenges and improve global health for all,” Kea said.

“We need to learn from the lessons of the pandemic and translate these into actions for the future that ensure nurses are protected, respected and valued. It is now time to look to the future and demonstrate what these investments will mean for nursing and healthcare.”

The “Our Nurses, Our Future” campaign will shine a light on nurses and a brighter future, moving nurses from invisible to invaluable in the eyes of policy makers, the public, and all those who make decisions affecting the delivery and financing of health care, said Kea.

As well as learning lessons to support nurses, the campaign will also look at how nurses can strengthen the health systems to address growing global health demands and will capture key actions that the International Council of Nurses (ICN) –  a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations, representing 28 million nurses worldwide – believes are essential to address both the profession and health systems.

“Together our future depends on every nurse, every voice, to not only be on the frontlines of care, but also be on the frontlines of change,” Kea said.