The Year of the Nurse & the Midwife
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for today’s Christian nurses & midwives spwinter 2021 great expectations: the year of the nurse & the midwife professional heroines proud to be a nurse sp is the nurses’ & midwives’ journal of the Christian Medical Fellowship inside A company limited by guarantee Editors great expectations Registered in England no. 6949436 Steve Fouch 4 Registered Charity no. 1131658 Pippa Peppiatt Registered office: Design proud to be a nurse 6 Marshalsea Road, London SE1 1HL S2 Design & Advertising Ltd 8 Tel 020 7234 9660 020 8771 9108 Email [email protected] Mary Seacole: Web cmf.org.uk Copyright 10 a nursing inspiration Christian Medical Fellowship, President London. All rights reserved. Except Florence Nightingale: nurse, John Wyatt MD FRCPCH for a few copies for private study, 13 statistician, activist & mystic Chair no part of this publication may be Maggy Spence MB BS MRCGP reproduced, stored in a retrieval the 1st black nurse in Treasurer system, or transmitted, in any 18 the NHS Philip Taylor MA (Oxon) form or by any means, electronic, Chief Executive mechanical, photocopying, transforming Mark Pickering MBBS MRCGP recording or otherwise, without 20 community health the prior permission of the Subscriptions Christian Medical Fellowship. superheroes are Spotlight is sent to all nurse and 24 only human too midwife members of CMF as part of Unless otherwise stated, Scripture reflections on serving as the benefits of membership. quotations taken from The Holy a midwife in Zimbabwe Bible, New International Version 26 Contributions Anglicised Copyright © 1979, 1984, The editors welcome original 2011 Biblica. Used by permission of eclipsed by COVID contributions, which have both Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, 28 Christian and nursing or midwifery an Hachette UK company. All rights serving as a nurse content. Advice for preparation is reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered in community available on request. trademark of Biblica. 30 the fine art of Authors have reasonable freedom UK trademark number 1448790. nursing of expression of opinion in so far 32 as their material is consonant with international the Christian faith as recorded in 34 nurses together the Bible. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers. nursing the Christian Medical Fellowship 36 world over an invitation to 38 NAMfest 2 sp editorial hat a momentous year it In this edition of Spotlight, we also want to has been! But not quite the celebrate the role of nurses and midwives, momentous year that The past and present. From Mary Seacole, an World Health Organization inspirational nurse in the Crimean War, to (WHO) imagined when it Mary Hopper, a current midwife member who dedicatedW 2020 to nurses and midwives, reflects on her missionary life in Zimbabwe. celebrating our work across the globe, and There’s the testimony of a nurse serving a highlighting our role in achieving the UN’s community, another on the Mercy Ships, and Sustainable Development Goals. You can read more who are faithfully working day by day more about these ‘SDGs’ in Georgie Coster’s in the NHS under challenging circumstances. piece over the page. Here at CMF, we salute you all. 2021 will be The year was chosen to coincide with the your year! 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. It seems ironic that due to Covid-19, nurses and midwives have been too busy this year giving essential care to celebrate, or to be properly celebrated. I was delighted to hear that the WHO have decided Pippa to extend this International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife into 2021. Pippa Peppiatt, CMF Head of Nurses & Midwives Pippa trained as a nurse. She has planted a church for students with her husband, set up a charity for street kids in Uganda, and has been a Friends International Student Worker. 3 feature greatexpectations Georgie Coster looks back and forward to the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife 4 sp 020’s designation as the significance because it marked 200 years since International Year of the Nurse the birth of the founder of modern nursing, and the Midwife by the WHO was Florence Nightingale. nothing to do with Coronavirus. The initiative came because However, it was the year that took us all by 2entering 2020 signalled a decade left to surprise and it’s fair to say that nothing quite achieve the United Nations Sustainable went to plan. In some ways, the Coronavirus Development Goals (SDGs), 17 goals that all pandemic was a great help in spotlighting the UN Member States agreed to strive to achieve vital work of nurses and midwives around by the year 2030. One of the goals is Good the world. In our own country, we received Health and Wellbeing, and the WHO a weekly applause and priority access to recognises that nurses and midwives are supermarkets. Perhaps some have been inspired absolutely essential to its accomplishment. to join the profession and help fill the 40,000 In 2017, less than half the global population nursing vacancies in health and care settings was covered by essential health services. 1 The in England alone 4 (hopefully not just to get to WHO aspires to see universal health coverage the front of the queue at Asda). But in other by 2030, and for that to happen, the world ways, 2020 has been a global health disaster. needs 9 million more nurses and midwives. 2 As part of its Good Health and Wellbeing goal, Cue 2020: A year to recognise and celebrate the UN is aiming to end preventable deaths of the integral role of nurses and midwives newborns and children under five years of age, worldwide. A role so vital that even when 50 with all countries aiming to reduce under-five per cent of the global health workforce are mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 nurses and midwives, we still need nine live births by 2030 5. However, their statistics million more. That’s why celebrating would expected hundreds of thousands of additional never be enough. The International Year of the under-five deaths in 2020 alone. Another Nurse and the Midwife was also a call to target was to end the epidemic of malaria, action – highlighting the challenging but in late 2020 the UN predicted that conditions nurses and midwives often face, Covid-related service cancellations would and advocating for increased investments in lead to a 100 per cent increase in malaria the workforce. 3 2020 of course held further deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. 5 sp UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs sustainable 2020: The year that was supposed to rapidly development accelerate progress towards the SDGs through a concerted focus on nursing and midwifery. Instead, the year where a global pandemic 17goals reversed decades of improvement and countries ended the year further from the End poverty in all its Build resilient infrastructure, goals than they were at the start. A year 1 forms everywhere 9 promote inclusive & sustainable for progression became a year of industrialisation & foster End hunger, achieve innovation regression. What a source of 2 food security & depression. improved nutrition & Reduce inequality within promote sustainable 10 & among countries agriculture Make cities & human settlements Or is it? The UN set out a vision for Ensure healthy lives 11 inclusive, safe, resilient & sustainable a world free from poverty, hunger 3 & promote well-being for all at all ages Ensure sustainable consumption and disease. But the Christian 12 & production patterns Ensure inclusive knows that as long as we’re living & equitable quality Take urgent action to combat in a fallen world, suffering and 4 climate change & its impacts education & promote 13 death is par for the course. We lifelong learning Conserve & sustainably use the opportunities for all 14 oceans, seas & marine resources know that their wonderful vision, Achieve gender for sustainable development regardless of ambition and effort, 5 equality & empower Protect, restore & promote will only become a reality in the all women & girls 15 sustainable use of terrestrial new creation. That doesn’t mean Ensure access to ecosystems, sustainably manage 6 affordable, reliable, forests, combat desertification, we don’t lament between now sustainable & modern halt & reverse soil degradation & halt biodiversity loss and then. We do – as does God. energy for all It doesn’t mean we don’t use our Promote peaceful & inclusive Promote sustained, privileged position as nurses and 7 inclusive & sustainable 16 societies for sustainable economic growth, full & development, provide access to midwives to shape a better world. justice for all & build effective, productive employment But it does mean that when our best & decent work for all accountable & inclusive institutions at all levels efforts and initiatives completely Build resilient 8 infrastructure, promote Strengthen the means of backfire and the outlook is bleak, we inclusive & sustainable 17 implementation & revitalise take heart, because we know a day is industrialisation & the global partnership for foster innovation sustainable development coming when all healthcare workers will 6 sp be out of a job. Can you imagine? I dare you. The staffing shortages we know, replaced, and international not by a temporary furlough scheme, but 2020 year of permanent eternal redundancy. No illness to the nurse & the midwife treat, no birth pangs to be heard, from your KEY patients or from our world. MESSAGES Strengthening For we know that the whole creation has been NURSING + groaning together in the pains of childbirth MIDWIFERY to achieve until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, HEALTH for groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption ALL Commit as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in POLITICAL this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen WILL + FUNDING to improve is not hope.