Future Proofing: The Nursing Now Campaign

In many Western democracies, nursing consumes a comparatively large proportion of the health service budget and delivers the highest proportion of direct patient care. Therefore, identifying and representing the contribution of nurses to clinical effectiveness as well as the wider social benefit to populations and the economy is crucial. Predictive models on health and social care requirements for the next quarter of a century report a staggering shift in population age, multimorbidity, and complexity of need. This is leading to the widespread realization that change is needed to ensure that health care throughout the world meets the emerging needs of humankind. Currently, 97% of health budgets are spent on treatment, while only 3% are invested in prevention. Targeted initiatives that redistribute a higher proportion of national health policy budgets to the prevention of disease offer opportunities for nurses to address gaps in service provision. Nursing Now is a campaign focused on raising the status and profile of nursing globally while maximizing the contribution that nurses make to the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Nursing Now is a 3-year campaign, launched in 2018. The campaign has a very clear strategic goal to position nursing to optimize the profession's potential to fully contribute and make a real difference to the health of the global population.