Nurses' voice as the key to change

https://doi.org/10.14528/snr.2022.56.3.3191 For the last two years, nurses have been more than ever before in a very complex and challenging timing. COVID-19 has disrupted society in its entirety. But, of all the different sectors, one that remained working day and night, with incredible shifts and no breaks or holiday, were the nurses, who through their relentless commitment, expertise, professionalism, bravery, care for our most vulnerable, have and continue preserving millions of lives daily and providing comfort and dignified care at end of life. This pandemic has for sure demonstrated the added value of the nursing workforce to the European healthcare ecosystems: working at the frontline of care, at the bedside with the patients, and providing the evidence that nurses' competencies are central to the functioning of healthcare systems in the EU. In the last few months, another reality hit us all hard with the war in Ukraine, and again brought very difficult timings for a whole population a humanitarian crisis that has been threatening our nurse colleagues and their families, and world peace. More than ever, international cooperation and solidarity have been vital to support nurses, midwives and healthcare professionals at the frontlines. In these difficult times, the European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN) has been collaborating very closely with international organisations, as the International Council of Nurses (ICN), and with EFN National Nurses Associations from Poland, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania, as well as Moldova, to bring its support to the nurses' colleagues from Ukraine, refugees or still in the country, and to those at the neighbouring countries boarders trying to help as much as they can the refugees flying the country, which for some of them are also nurses and midwives. The EFN is also in close contact with other key EU stakeholders and with the European Commission to collectively support the efforts to support and protect nurses, midwives, health professionals and ensure access to healthcare and promote peace through a unified nursing response. More than ever, nurses have witnessed the devastating suffering of individuals and their families with an enormous impact on their mental and physical health. The COVID-19 pandemic reaffirmed the value of well prepared and educated nurses which leads to lower mortality rates and better patient outcomes. Nurses play an essential role in the provision of safe and quality healthcare. Despite the ongoing challenges they are facing and the difficult and stressful working conditions, nurses continue to tackle the situations with incredible strength and dedication to ensure the smooth functioning of the healthcare systems and the well-being of their patients. From the European Commission perspective, it is acknowledged that a stronger Europe-wide coordination is required in relation to health, with more investment to build the foundations for a more resilient health system and better preparation for possible future health crises. As such, people and their well-being are at the heart of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan (European Commission, 2021) that sets out the common agenda to reinforce social Europe. As the single largest occupational group in healthcare, nurses have a crucial and unique role to play in the efforts to develop effective and efficient health systems able to respond to the challenges they face. This depends to a considerable extent on having a highquality health workforce of sufficient capacity and with the right skills. The way forward could be simple as we do not need to make things more complicated than they already are. With the very good steps already achieved, we need for sure to build further on all the work done and the outcomes reached so far at national and EU level, building on partnerships with the EU leaders and policymakers, and knowing that a lot is happening at EU level, namely on Digitalisation, Workforce Editorial/Uvodnik