A Call to "Re-ignite" Nightingale's Vision

The worldwide health care crisis is reparable, according to Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing associate professor Cynda H. Rushton, PhD, RN, and her colleagues working with the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH).

Rushton, an international co-director of the Initiative, joined fellow co-directors Barbara M. Dossey, PhD, RN, and Deva-Marie Beck, PhD, RN, in an editorial published May 5 in The Dallas Morning News calling for audiences worldwide to “re-ignite Ms. Nightingale’s vision” and to renew commitment to her work.

During Nurses Week 2007 (May 6-12), the NIGH launched the Nightingale Declaration Campaign to collect—by November 2008—2 million signatures requesting the United Nations General Assembly to adopt resolutions naming 2010 as the International Year of the Nurse, and 2011-2020 as the U.N. Decade for a Healthy World.

Signatures can be added to the Nightingale Declaration at www.nightingaledeclaration.net.