Following the launch of Heart of Healthcare: Celebrating Our Nurses, WPA continues to advance this patient-centred campaign to recognise nurses’ contributions to safe, respectful, compassionate, and high-quality care. Under this project, WPA has published Two Blogs, Two Advocacy Letters, and Patient Testimonials to highlight nurses’ role in care delivery and the urgent need to strengthen support for the nursing workforce. WPA is also running a Yearlong Social Media Campaign to amplify advocacy messages, highlight everyday realities and key workforce challenges, and reinforce the urgency of policy action.
The First Advocacy Letter focused on elevating nurses’ workforce challenges and calling for improvements, while the First Blog brought these challenges into wider public discussion and highlighted the importance of nurse retention and wellbeing.
To celebrate International Nurses Day 2026, WPA launched the Patients’ Hats Off to Nurses initiative. Under this initiative, WPA ran a dedicated 12-day IND 2026 social media campaign from 1 May to 12 May 2026 reaching more than 6.3 million views across WPA digital platforms
To support wider participation and keep all campaign materials accessible in one place, WPA also developed a dedicated International Nurses Day webpage. The webpage brought together all key initiative resources, including the Dedicated Animated Awareness Video, The 12-Day IND 2026 Social Media Toolkit, the Global Blog, and the Advocacy Letter.
The Toolkit was developed in 05 UN Listed International Languages for patient organizations, nurses’ associations, and partners to celebrate IND 2026 in solidarity. It was used by nurses’ associations and more than 30 Patient Organizations across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. While dedicated animated awareness video released on International Nurses Day 12 May reached more than 1.2 million views across all WPA digital platforms.
The toolkit was developed in five UN official languages for patient organizations, nurses’ associations, and partners to celebrate International Nurses Day 2026 in solidarity. It was used by more than 30 patient organizations and nurses’ associations across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The Dedicated Animated Awareness Video, released on International Nurses Day (12 May), reached more than 1.2 million views across WPA’s digital platforms, helping extend patient-centred messages of recognition and support for nurses to global audiences.
To continue recognition of nurses beyond International Nurses Day, WPA sent Advocacy Letters on 25 May to the World Health Organization, healthcare stakeholders, and nursing associations. The letters received strong engagement from nursing associations and global healthcare stakeholders, including dedicated letters of response from WHO, ICN, and ISQua.
To carry the message of International Nurses Day across May, WPA also published a follow-up blog titled “Patients Stand With Nurses Beyond International Nurses Day 2026” on 30 May.
Click here to learn more about the campaign and access awareness and advocacy materials