The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has signed an agreement with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to support the education and training of nurses across the world.
The partnership will see the two organisations collaborate on improving, facilitating and accrediting continuing professional development (CPD) programmes for nurses globally.
“We don’t get CPD when times are tough, and as we know they’re going to become tougher again”
Howard Catton
RCN chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger and ICN chief executive Howard Catton signed a memorandum of understanding.
Mr Catton said he hoped it would build on existing work ICN engages in regarding CPD, to help nurses in countries with particularly poor development infrastructure gain access to quality on-the-job training.
“There is a huge potential need out there for professional development and support,” he said.
Mr Catton said that the partnership gave ICN access to the resources and reputation of the RCN, for which he was previously head of policy and international affairs.
He added: “For the ICN to find a partner to [address] this… the college emerged as the most natural fit for a whole pile of reasons.
“We’re trying to bring together the power of the college, [with] its global recognition and respect, and the ICN to create a vehicle to support career development and accreditation of learning.”
Mr Catton pointed to the findings of the State of the World’s Nursing report, which found that while 72% of countries had national systems in place to support CPD for nurses, it was not known how many of these programmes were accredited.
He spoke about the worldwide issue of underfunding of CPD: “Nursing rarely gets its fair share [of money] when it’s divvied up between health professions…
“We don’t get CPD when times are tough, and as we know they’re going to become tougher again, those budgets can be targeted fairly early on.
“We’re trying to shift the mindset… to think about CPD money as funding to support innovation and quality improvement.”
Mr Catton said there was a “real problem” in many countries where nurses get “stuck” early in their career, and that there was a need to make the case to governments that investing in CPD made economic sense.
“I think these are hugely important resources to retain people,” he said. “You can do an awful lot to [keep] people in even if you may not be able to offer the pay awards [they] want.”
In a statement published after the partnership was signed, Professor Ranger added: “I am delighted to be signing this new collaboration with the ICN.
“Nursing is an incredible career and giving even more of those in the profession access to world-class learning and development opportunities will, I hope, strengthen us even further.
“Being part of the ICN means the voice of nursing is heard even louder by governments and health leaders around the world.”
