Nurses and midwives are the main providers of health care in the countries where ICAP works. In ordinary times, they provide upwards of 90 percent of health services, frequently serving as the primary touchpoint between patients and the health care system.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic put these invaluable frontline workers at risk and required new training protocols to enable them to care for themselves and their patients. ICAP quickly rose to the challenge in 15 countries supporting innovative virtual training on COVID-19 disease diagnostics, infection prevention and control, triage care and communication strategies. To protect the safety of frontline health workers, ICAP supported the procurement hundreds of thousands of pieces Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), thermometers, and hand wash stations, across more than a dozen countries.

ICAP’s nimble response to COVID-19 leveraged its long-time commitment to training frontline health care workers and deep partnerships with ministries of health. Since 2006, a strategic pillar of ICAP’s approach to capacity-building for health systems in resource-limited countries has been to ensure that nurses and midwives have the training, equipment and respect they need and deserve, with ongoing professional education and robust professional networks. Because a strong nursing force leads to improved health and wellbeing for patients, ICAP has advocated that every initiative to strengthen a health system should support nurses as a critical component.

The wisdom and experience of nurses is fundamental to building health systems able to achieve universal health coverage rooted in strong models of primary health care. By building more resilient and more highly trained frontline health workers, health systems will be strengthened not only in the course of normal operations, but more importantly, during times of crisis.

Susan Michaels-Strasser, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
ICAP’s Senior Director for Human Resources for Health Development

In 2020, ICAP joined the global celebration of the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, commemorating the bicentennial of the birth of Florence Nightingale at a time when the importance of nurses has never been clearer.

Among its activities, on October 15, 2020, ICAP convened Courage to Care, a half-day virtual conference exploring the roles of nurses as leaders in health and how their unique contributions can enhance health care systems around the world. During a keynote session, supermodel and registered nurse Maggie Rawlins cited the nursing profession’s longstanding reputation for “stepping up” during previous health crises. “During a crisis, nurses are always the first ones to step up whether they are giving direct patient care in the hospital or organizing large-scale health organizations,” she said. “Throughout history, nurses have always run to the front lines.”

During the conference, ICAP also honored health workers on the frontlines of the COVID response. The new Courage to Care Award was awarded jointly to John Katala, a community outreach volunteer in Tanzania who selflessly brought ART prescription refills directly to patients’ homes during the pandemic, and to the team at the Rwanda Biomedical Center, which worked tirelessly to safeguard the health of the Rwandan people and to protect the public health system at large.