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RCN INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT

WORLD IN BRIEF – 22 October 2009

Education

Strengthening co-operation between Europe and the US on higher

education reforms

Earlier this month, the European Union held its first education policy forum with the US to
exchange views on common challenges focussing particularly on higher education reforms
posed by the Bologna Process for first, second and third-cycle degrees as well as co-
operation between universities and businesses.

The forum issued a joint statement agreeing ten concrete joint follow-up actions including:

• Realising the huge untapped potential for academic, student and staff mobility across
the Atlantic
• Exploring the feasibility of a joint EU-US Tuning project identifies reference points
for generic and subject-specific competencies for first and second cycle graduates
• US participation in the Bologna Policy Forum supported by the European Commission
• A joint study on higher education credit systems in the US and Europe.

The RCN will continue to track this initiative for its impact on nurse education and
training.

Employment and Social Affairs

Exploring how to improve career paths for health care staff

The RCN’s alliance, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, held a seminar in
September 2009 with hospital employers to exchange practices and experiences on new
skills mix, workforce planning and leadership for health care staff. They highlighted one
of the main challenges is improving the status of health care staff and freeing up more of
their time to treat patients using potential approaches such as

• Proper identification of new skills

• Identifying and addressing both skill shortages and over-capacity occur
• Outlining clear leadership paths for retaining highly qualified staff.

A background paper for this seminar highlighted how decreasing birth rates and an ageing
population will shift demands and tasks from midwifery to providing nursing care for
older people. Nursing staff will need increasing specialisation and greater knowledge in
areas such as e-skills, quality management and flexibility as health care providers search
for ways to optimise the care process.

Widespread concern across Europe on economic crisis affecting health

and safety at work

An opinion poll conducted earlier this year in each EU member state by the European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work on what Europeans think about their working
conditions reports the majority of citizens expect their working conditions to
deteriorate owing to the global economic downturn, particularly impacting on health
and safety. Overall, three-quarters of respondents believe that a person’s job is a
contributory factor to their ill-health.

For many Europeans, occupational safety and health is an important factor in

choosing a job. There are marked gender differences in citizens’ opinions towards
occupational safety and health; women are less confident than men that these
conditions have improved over recent years and consider they are less well-informed.

This agency comments that the risks to women’s safety and health at work maybe
underestimated and neglected through incompatibility of working time with family
life; the ‘double shift’ that continues to affect women disproportionately; and that
there is more emphasis on accidents at work than on occupational health.

Health Services

Reducing health inequalities across Europe

The European Commission issued a Communication this month on solidarity in

health: reducing health inequalities in the EU that follows on from its consultation
issued earlier this year as part of its commitment to equality of opportunity for
Europe’s citizens. The Commission considers it can provide support to member states
through complementing their policies in tackling avoidable factors which impact
unequally on health.

This Communication is highlighting specific actions that the EU, member states and
stakeholders can take that will frame a sustained commitment for this long-term
process. These actions include:

• Orientate EU research towards closing knowledge gaps on health inequalities

• Develop ways to engage relevant stakeholders at European level to promote the
uptake and dissemination of good practice
• Develop actions and tools on professional training to address health inequalities
• Launch initiatives in collaboration with member states to raise awareness and
promote actions to meet the needs of vulnerable groups
• Ensure that future initiatives on healthy ageing address health inequalities

The RCN responded to the European Commission’s consultation on reducing health

inequalities highlighting the roles nursing staff in the UK implement on issues such as
promoting healthier lifestyles, targeting health services to vulnerable people; and
providing health care information in one place. Our response is available on our
website.

The Commission announced it will work actively in partnership with member states and
stakeholders with a first progress report scheduled for issue in 2012.

Public Health

Mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in Europe

The first in a series of five high-level conferences on mental health throughout a person’s
lifespan took place last month as part of the European Pact for Mental Health and
Wellbeing launched in June 2008. This event focussed on children's and young people's
health and had three overarching aims of:

• Raise visibility on the importance of promoting children’s and young people’s mental
health
• Enable an exchange at EU-level on policy activities, good practices by stakeholders
and research projects
• Endorse an implementation framework for the mental health pact for youth and
education.

All the recommendations and activity overviews from the series of conferences lasting
until 2011 will feed into the European Commission’s ongoing EU Compass for Action on
Mental Health. Once the series of conferences is complete, the Commission will assess
the pact’s implementation, possibly in the form of another high-level conference on
European mental health.

Diary 2009

1 July to 31 December Swedish Presidency of the European Union Website for

the Swedish Presidency in English

26 to 29 October 7th global conference on health promotion organised by the

World Health Organization and Kenya Ministry of Health
in Nairobi more information

3 November European Parliament Environment, Public Health and

Food Safety Committee meet in Brussels Draft Agenda

4 November European Parliament Women’s Rights and Gender

Equality Committee meet in Brussels (awaiting agenda)

4 November European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs

Committee meet in Brussels Draft Agenda

Next Edition: Thursday 5 November 2009

For further information contact:

Gabrielle Levy RCN European and International Information Assistant
Email: gabrielle.levy@rcn.org.uk
Tel: 020 7647 3929

James Bridge RCN EU/International Adviser

Email: james.bridge@rcn.org.uk
Tel: 020 7647 3595