Marie-Françoise Borel
The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement honours 28 exceptional humanitarian heroes.
This week, 28 nurses from around the world were awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, a distinction which is given out every two years by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The medal is the highest international distinction that can be awarded to a nurse, or a nursing aide, chosen among candidates presented by Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It honours exceptional courage and devotion to caring for victims of armed conflict or other disasters, or exemplary service and a pioneering spirit in the field of public health or nursing education.
This year the recipients of the Florence Nightingale Medal demonstrated the exceptional courage and dedication that make the difference between life and death in many different disasters and conflicts. They embody the first of the fundamental principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement - humanity.
Some of the recipients of the award have carried out many missions for the ICRC, often in dangerous conflict environments, such as Ms. Toril Parelius, of the Norwegian Red Cross. She is passing on her experience to train new delegates in health care for victims of conflict and disasters.
Whatever their special skills, from emergency health care, to psychological support, home-based care or training, nurses are always on the front line to care for and support the most vulnerable. In fact, nursing has been and remains at the very heart of Red Cross and Red Crescent action. Virtually every National Society has been engaged in first aid and in nursing from its beginnings. As early as the 1920’s, the League of Red Cross Societies (as the International Federation was then known) began promoting preventive medicine and decided to focus its support to National Societies on three important fields, hygiene, nursing and youth. In the 1930’s nursing and public health remained priorities, and the League expanded its programmes of visiting nurses, emergency care and home treatment. Consequently, dozens of National Societies established nursing schools, crèches and antenatal care for pregnant women.
Today, the tradition continues, and activities have evolved with the times. For example, Red Cross and Red Crescent home-based care programmes, in particular those designed for people living with HIV as well as for tuberculosis patients, are considered by health experts as the most effective in terms of quality of assistance and results.
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Florence Nightingale, considered as the founder of modern nursing, was born of wealthy English parents in Florence, on May 12, 1820. From her earliest years, she felt a calling to care for the sick. During the Crimean War (1854-56) she volunteered to serve in a hospital in the Istanbul suburb of Scutari, where she treated and cared for wounded British soldiers. She improved the hygiene and health conditions in military hospitals and contributed to a significant decrease in the death toll among injured soldiers, from 44% to 2%. Known for her charisma and her compassion as well as extraordinary organizational skills, Florence Nightingale earned the nickname of “the lady with lamp”, as she moved through the wards at night, comforting her patients. Back in England, she used her fame and energy to reform the army’s medical services, hospitals and health care, and to enhance nurses’ status and training. Her life continues to inspire nurses the world over.