Making waves in the international nursing community

Three research fellows from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing) were invited to the International Council of Nurses Congress (ICN) 2023, the largest nursing conference in the world.

The International Council of Nurses Congress (ICN), organised by the International Council of Nurses and the Canadian Nurses Association, was held from 1 to 5 July 2023 in Montreal, Canada. Themed “Nurses together: a force for global health”, the ICN 2023 Congress brought together the powerful force of 28 million nurses worldwide.

As the world’s largest international nursing event, the ICN Congress has proved itself as the global platform to gather and empower the global nursing community, as nurses gathered to learn, share and network for a better nursing workforce and healthcare system on the whole.

Three of our research fellows from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing) were invited to the Congress — Dr Brigitte Woo, Dr Chua Wei Ling, and Dr Betsy Seah, at which they presented the abstracts of their research.

Dr Chua Wei Ling, Research Fellow at NUS Nursing, presenting a research poster on sepsis.

Dr Chua shared on the knowledge of caring for patients with sepsis, as well the development and evaluation of a virtual telesimulation-based sepsis interprofessional education (IPE) program, to benefit interprofessional communication and collaboration among students.

Dr Betsy Seah, Research Fellow at NUS Nursing, presenting a poster on her research about the impact of students’ internship experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and their decision to stay in the nursing workforce.

Recognising the intention of nurses in staying or leaving the workforce, Dr Seah delved specifically into how nursing students’ internship experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic period affected their intention to stay in nursing.

It is crucial to keep nurses motivated to stay in the workforce, as Dr Woo suggests. “To keep nurses motivated, we need to support them in the areas of Autonomy, fuelling their desire to be self-directed to increase the engagement of nurses, Mastery, to encourage nurses to upskill themselves, and Purpose — their desire to do something meaningful to them.”

Dr Woo and Associate Professor Zhou Wentao from NUS Nursing also co-authored a book chapter, which was made available for the first time at the ICN. Titled “Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Anesthetists: The Evolution of Global Ethics”, the chapter they worked on showcases the role of advanced practice nurses (APNs) in Singapore and demonstrates how their impact can be evaluated.

Dr Brigitte Woo, Research Fellow at NUS Nursing, co-authored a book chapter with Associate Professor Zhou Wentao from NUS Nursing. Dr Woo presented this book at ICN 2023.

The event has also highlighted the importance of support systems for the nursing workforce and community, such as the financial and political commitment to invest in nursing.

ICN 2023 highlighted the importance of unity, solidarity, collaboration and influence of the nursing community on global health. It built on the lessons learned from the pandemic — from protecting nurses rights, ensuring decent working conditions, optimizing nurses’ scope of practice, to driving nursing leadership, respect for the profession, and a greater impact on health policies at all levels.

“It is my honour to be one of more than 6000 delegates at the ICN congress — one of the nursing conferences in the world. Having our abstracts accepted is an achievement in itself, and I’m very honoured to represent NUS Nursing, in sharing the research work we have done,” said Dr Woo.