Incorporate nursing sciences more strongly into health policy

16.03.2022 12:01

Prof. Dr. Annett Horn of Münster University of Applied Sciences is a member of the newly established "Expert Council on Nursing Science/Midwifery Science and Pandemics" of the German Nursing Council (DPR). Together with 13 colleagues from other universities, the professor is committed to ensuring that nursing science expertise is taken into account in health policy.

According to a press release from the DPR, this is because it is hardly included in advisory boards and expert councils at the federal level. "Nursing is the largest professional group in the healthcare system," says Horn, Professor of Public Health Nursing at the Faculty of Health. "With demographic change, there are also more and more people in need of care. We must incorporate the nursing science perspective much more strongly into political decisions in the future," demands Horn. The expert council is working with particular attention to the pandemic situation: "It can be assumed that vulnerable groups such as the very elderly will also be more severely affected in the next waves of the pandemic. In the expert council, we want to review what we have learned in recent months from dealing with COVID-19 and thus prepare the healthcare system for future waves of disease and possible further pandemics," explains Horn. To this end, the expert council aims to publish an initial statement on how to deal with the pandemic by May and to regularly develop recommendations for action in the future.

Horn's research and teaching focus is Public Health Nursing – the university professor holds the only professorship in Germany in this field. Prevention and health promotion are therefore personally important concerns for Horn, which she intends to bring to the council. "Health promotion in old age has often been neglected during the pandemic. But especially for the very elderly, every day they can participate in such programs counts to prevent their health from deteriorating."

Together with Thomas Fischer, spokesperson for the Expert Council, Horn established the "Care, Health, Ageing" working group within the "Public Health COVID-19" competence network even before the council was established. "Various healthcare disciplines are represented in this competence network and in the political councils. But nursing science is often overlooked in the latter," says Horn. However, one important finding is already that cooperation among all stakeholders in the healthcare system is essential. "Medicine, nursing, therapy – everyone should pull together," says the professor.