To create real programs from NIGH’s Mission, Mandate and Goals, several initial inter-related strategies are being planned, developed and implemented—as funding and resources become available. These include:

1) Preparing for two United Nations General Assembly Resolutions to be voted upon in 2007:

• the United Nations International Year of the Nurse in 2010 (the Centennial of Nightingale’s death), and

• the United Nations Decade for a Healthy World, 2010-2020 (the Bicentennial of Nightingale’s birth).

2) Empowering nurses around the world as leaders of a grassroots global campaign to circulate "The Nightingale Declaration for Our Healthy World" as a universal Signature Campaign to be organized between 2004- 2007.

3) Convening key NIGH consultations in the United States, Canada and Europe, including London, Geneva, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Helsinki and with potential collaborators from Asia, Africa, the South Pacific, Central and South America and the Middle East, as well as those from the U.S. and Canada.

4) Establishing sites, contact-persons and local group support for a worldwide network of regional NIGH Communities and creating related NIGH Resources Files.  

5) Developing a worldwide NIGH membership campaign to provide a number of informational, educational and networking benefits for members.

6) Collaborating with local networks of nurses and others for regional on-site workshops and education outreach across North America and around the world. The theme of these workshops is our “Care for the Caregivers™ Series,” which focuses on contributing to re-creating and sustaining a culture of caring within American, Canadian and international health care systems.

7) Developing and implementing an updated global Nightingale information strategy—including for all official United Nations languages, Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish—in collaboration with an international team of Nightingale scholars, including Barbara M. Dossey, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, Deva-Marie Beck, PhD, RN, Louise C. Selanders, EdD, RN, Alex Attewell, the Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum and Baroness Caroline Cox, a nurse Member of the British House of Lords.

8) Developing, in collaboration with Lynchpin Productions, a “Florence Nightingale One-Woman Show” to tour university campuses and communities, across North America and around the world.

9) Developing an interactive and distance-learning internet presence where people can connect and collaborate with each other around the world. Featured components will include courses for CE credits and links to co-sponsors and collaborators from the worldwide nursing community as well as a variety of disciplines and perspectives.

10) Collaborating—with regional multi-media and journalist professionals and educators—to empower nurses and student nurses with communication and entrepreneurial skills in print and broadcast media, public speaking, networking and promotional advocacy as well as group leadership. Initial pilot regions identified include Southern West Virginia, Metropolitan Washington, D.C. and Eastern Ontario.

11) In follow up to the above, preparing to convene the first international conference of NIGH, as early 2006, proposed site, Nairobi, Kenya:

• to focus on global health issues in the African context,

• to specifically enable nursing students from around the world to return with communication skills in print and broadcast media, public speaking, networking and promotional advocacy a well as group leadership;       

• to establish worldwide video-conferencing capacity.

12) Designing, publishing and circulating a print tabloid titled THE GLOBAL CITIZEN to establish an ongoing worldwide circulation to highlight major world health issues, key aspects of the NIGH plans and news of exemplary ‘local best practices that create a healthy world.’ This publication will focus on informing journalists and media professionals about global health issues in the context of what is already being accomplished by nurses, as well as by international Service Clubs such as Rotary International and the International Red Cross.

13) Implementing plans for a major "Global Forum on Healthy Communities" to feature ‘approaches that work’ to create a healthy world, to include world-wide video conferencing capacity.

14) Participating, through featured presentations and exhibits, in related regional national and international conferences.  

Wherever you are in the world, we welcome you to join in these endeavors. To discuss the possibilities, click here or call us and leave a voice mail message detailing your name, phone number and the best times to reach you and we will call you to discuss a range of possibilities. As of October 2004, our start-up office phone numbers are: in Canada (613) 657-8952 (NIGH [International]), and in the United States, (703) 785-0831 at NIGH [USA].

To begin the launch of this project, these two initial organizations have been formed: NIGH [International], based in Ottawa, Canada and NIGH [USA], based in Washington, D.C. We plan to support the development of many more NIGH Communities around the world.