International Nurses Day 2026 hybrid event

12 May, 2026, 12 PM-2:30 PM

Tuesday 12 May 2026, Brussels, Belgium (14:00-16:30 CET)

Held on the occasion of International Nurses’ Day, this webinar addresses two fundamental questions about the nursing profession and marks the launch of the seminal volume Strengthening health systems through nursing: Thematic overview.

Part 1 Webinar: What are nurses, and how does the nursing profession support health system transformation? (14:00-15:00) 

• What are nurses, and how is the nursing profession defined across different roles and levels of practice?
• How does the nursing profession support health system performance and transformation?

Nurses constitute the largest professional group in any health system, with around 3.7 million practising nurses in the EU. However, “nursing” is far from a homogeneous profession. It encompasses nursing professionals, nursing associates and health care assistants, with increasing differentiation through specialization and the emergence of advanced practice roles. Understanding this diversity is essential to appreciating the full breadth of nursing’s contribution to health systems.

This webinar examines how the development of nursing roles, competencies, and leadership can actively support health system reform and the transition to new models of care. It also explores how nurses contribute to key dimensions of health system performance, specifically, quality of care, access, effectiveness, safety, user experience, people-centredness and population health outcomes.

As European health systems evolve towards more integrated, preventative and people-centred models, the role of nurses in enabling and sustaining this transformation is of paramount importance. Strengthening nursing capacities is not only a workforce priority, but a strategic lever for improving overall health system performance.

This webinar offers insights into the current and future contribution of nursing and highlights policy-relevant pathways for leveraging nursing development in health system transformation.

Prof Anne-Marie Rafferty, Professor of Health & Nursing Policy, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery & Palliative Care, King’s College, London, United Kingdom (Keynote)
Rachel Greenley, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Margrieta Langins, WHO Regional Office for Europe
Wendy Preston, Royal College of Nursing, United Kingdom

Moderators: 

Matthias Wismar & Ewout van Ginneken (European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies)

Part 2 Roundtable: Nursing development strengthening health systems (15:30-16:30) 

Designed as an interactive and lively exchange, the roundtable will bring together key stakeholders to identify and “stitch together” the most promising strategies for nursing development that can strengthen health systems and support the transition towards new models of care.