World Health Day 2020 Honours Nurses And Midwives: Here's Everything You Need To Know

World Health Day is observed on April 7. World Health Day 2020 will honour and celebrate the work of nurses and midwives. This year, the day will be celebrated to remind the world about the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy. Healthcare workers and nurses are at the forefront of COVID-19 response, by providing good quality treatment and care to patients. They are also the ones who lead community dialogue to address fears and questions about the novel coronavirus. Also, they have been at the forefront for collecting data for clinical studies for this deadly disease.

Every year, World Health Day focuses on different aspects of health and well-being. In 2019 and 2018, the theme of World Health Day was Universal Health Coverage. Whereas, in 2017 and 2016, the themes were Depression, let's talk, and Beat Diabetes, respectively.

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World Health Day 2020: Theme and significance

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the year 2020 as the "Year of the Nurse and Midwife" in order to honour the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. The year 2020 is an important year in terms of strengthening its Universal Health Coverage strategy.

This year, the WHO highlights the current status of nursing around the world. The organisation and its partners aim to make a serious of recommendation in order to strengthen the workforce of nurses and midwives, as per the WHO website.

This is important for achieving global targets related to universal health coverage, maternal and child health, patients' safety, mental health, infectious and non-communicable diseases, delivery of people-centred care amongst others.

Strong nursing and midwifery workforces are required to ensure that everyone, everywhere gets the healthcare they need.

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Also, this World Health Day, WHO will launch State of the World's Nursing Report 2020, the first of its kind. This report will provide a global picture of nursing workforce and will also support evidence-based planning to optimise their contributions for improving health and well-being for all. A similar report of midwifery workforce will be launched in 2021.

Both these reports will set agenda for data collection, investment, research and advocacy and policy dialogue in health workforce for generations to come.

Here's wishing a very happy World Health Day to everyone!

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