OPENING PLENARY: Global Challenges and the Role of Evidence

Description/Overview: This paper will start with a brief description of the role that the International Council of Nurses play in gathering, analysing, disseminating and addressing global nursing challenges and how through working in partnership with a range of stakeholders these can be addressed. It will set these with the context of their relevance to health systems redesign and addressing population and patient health. Issues of changing demographics, migration, climate and environmental change, social determinants of health, economics, technology and education will be considered. For each of the issues identified the role that the nursing profession can play and how evidence can be assembled and applied will be explored. The use of current evidence as well as the need for further research will be addressed. It will be argued that the opportunities for the nursing profession are considerable, that knowledge management and application will be critical if future health systems are to address population and patient needs. To achieve optimum patient outcomes and population health nursing will be the subject, engine and architects of evidence based change.