The Health SA Gesondheid Journal is proud to announce that their ‘Centenary Edition: Year of the Nurse and Midwife’ is underway. Honouring the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the centenary edition aligns with The World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board designating 2020 to the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.

The centenary edition focuses on publishing articles aligned with the The World Health Organization (WHO) message released on 30 January 2019, Geneva: The Executive Board, today, designated the year 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and midwife”, in honor of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. This proposal will now be presented to Member States of the 72nd World Health Assembly for consideration and endorsement. The year 2020 is significant for WHO in the context of nursing and midwifery strengthening for Universal Health Coverage. WHO is leading the development of the first-ever State of the World’s Nursing report which will be launched in 2020, prior to the 73rd World Health Assembly. The report will describe the nursing workforce in WHO Member States, providing an assessment of “fitness for purpose” relative to GPW13 targets. WHO is also a partner on The State of the World’s Midwifery 2020 report, which will also be launched around the same time. The NursingNow! Campaign, a three-year effort (2018-2020) to improve health globally by raising the status of nursing will culminate in 2020 by supporting country-level dissemination and policy dialogue around the State of the World’s Nursing report (WHO website).

Publication of the collection has started and can be viewed online. Keep an eye out for published articles rolling out over the next few months.