About the lecture
Florence Nightingale possessed a prodigious set of gifts. Best known for her innovations in nursing, these only ever formed a small part of her output and life’s work. As WHO’s Year of the Nurse and Midwife draws to a close and we try to find an exit route out of a painful and cruel pandemic, it is worth reflecting on the modernity of Nightingale’s thinking, her contribution to healthcare, and relevance for some of the enduring health system and global public health challenges we face today.
This presentation will focus on the legacy of workforce challenges in nursing. With an estimated six million nurses short globally, this is surely one of the greatest barriers to health equity, universal health coverage and system resilience. It is worth asking what would Nightingale do if she were here today? What can we take from Nightingale’s legacy to inspire change for the future?
About the speaker
Dame Anne Marie Rafferty is Professor of Nursing Policy, Deputy Director of the Health and Social Care Workforce Policy Research Unit, former Dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, and President of the Royal College of Nursing.
She is a historian, health workforce and policy researcher, graduating from Edinburgh University in social science (Nursing Studies); as a clinical academic, Nottingham University MPhil (Surgery). She was the first nurse to gain a doctorate (DPhil Modern History) from Oxford University.
She is one of first nurses to be elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and holds fellowships from the Royal College of Nursing, (FRCN), American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI).
She was made Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to healthcare in 2008 and Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2020 for services to nursing.
She served on the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery 2009-10 and as a member of the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and Research Excellence Framework (REF) panels since 2008, and Hong Kong RAE panel in 2019-21. She has been recipient of various awards; Nursing Times Leadership Award (2014); Health Services Journal Top 100 Clinical Leaders Award in 2015; 2017 nominated as one of 70 most influential nurses in the 70 years of the National Health Service.
