Nurses play an important role in accomplishing The United Nations Millennium Development Goals, as their work is aimed at reducing the risks related to many of the urgent issues faced by the modern world community.
Florence Nightingale’s legacy has contributed to a better understanding of the role of nurses in advancing the Millennium Development Goals. Her professional activity influenced all parts of the everyday life of common people. She put much effort in both reconstructing the system of delivering primary care and adjusting the conditions that are not directly related to healthcare to the needs of patients. Florence Nightingale paid attention to environmental concerns affecting the health of people (Beck, Dossey, & Rushton, n.d., p. 6). She openly expressed her attitude to the importance of education in public (Beck, Dossey, & Rushton, n.d., p. 3). She addressed issues of gender equality and put much effort into providing young girls with the means to join a nursing profession (Beck, Dossey, & Rushton, n.d., p. 4). Her life is the perfect proof of the fact that the nurse who strives for providing better caring for people should not limit her work only to medical activities, but should try to influence all aspects of life that play an essential role in keeping the patients healthy. Florence Nightingale’s activity included actions aimed at achieving all of the Millennium Goals almost two centuries ago.
As a nurse, I can advance the Millennium Goals intended to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. Child mortality is a factor that can be reduced by the appropriate number of qualified healthcare workers. As a nurse, I regard the continuous advancement of my skills and knowledge as my primary priority. They are of vital importance for providing services that lower the risks related to child mortality. I believe that timely interventions are the keys to reducing child mortality. Improving maternal health is the core basis for achieving other millennium goals. The health of women during pregnancy and childbirth has a huge impact on the health of future generations, as the health of children directly depends on the state of health of their mother. As a nurse, I find it necessary to encourage the education of young females and promote their awareness of important issues the healthy maternity depends on. I believe that prevention and education are the keys to improving maternity health. High rates of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases create a global emergency that needs efficient solutions. Adequate healthcare delivery services provided by nurses are the first requirement for dealing with these conditions. Every nurse should be aware of the most recent testing recommendations and developments in screening technology (Bradley-Springer, Stevens, & Webb, 2010, p. 32). As a nurse, I look forward to improving my knowledge about the treatment of communicable diseases, using it in practice, and educating the youth about the ways of prevention of transmission.
Our community of nurses can help to advance the UN Goals by promoting the popularity of the nursing profession and educating young specialists who are eager to contribute to the delivery of high-quality healthcare services. Such a strategy can address the need for high-qualified medical workers faced by healthcare institutions and improve the overall quality of primary care, which plays an essential role in reaching the Millennium Goals. A strong health system is a key to achieving improved health outcomes that are of vital importance for advancing the UN Goals (Travis et al., 2004, p. 900). The exchange of experience and collaboration with nurses from other communities and countries are important steps to improving the health system.
Every nurse should consider her possible contribution to accomplishing The United Nations Millennium Development Goals and put much effort into improving the healthcare services to find the appropriate solutions to current global problems.
References
Beck, D.-M., Dossey, B., & Rushton, C. H. (n.d.). Florence Nightingale. Connecting her legacy with local-to-global health today. Web.
Bradley-Springer, L., Stevens, L., & Webb, A. (2010). Every nurse is an HIV nurse. American Journal of Nursing, 110(3), 32-39.
Travis, P., Bennett, S., Haines, A., Pang, T., Bhutta, Z., Hyder, A. A.,… Evans, T. (2004). Overcoming health-systems constraints to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The Lancet, 364(9437), 900–906.