Empowering Nurses to Save Lives
International Nurses Day 2026: Empowering Nurses to Save Lives
Every year on 12 May, nurses around the world are recognised for the knowledge, skill, expertise and compassion that they bring to health and social care. International Nurses Day also challenges us to look forward: to ask how we value nurses today and what we must do to ensure the profession can thrive tomorrow.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) have set a powerful theme for International Nurses Day 2026: “Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives.”
This theme highlights a simple but urgent truth: when nurses are properly supported, resourced and empowered, they are able to provide safer care, improve outcomes and transform lives. At the RCN Foundation, this message lies at the very heart of our work.
But what does it mean to empower nurses? Empowerment is more than encouragement or applause. It means enabling nurses to practise to the full extent of their skills and knowledge, to develop their careers, and to influence the systems in which they work. The ICN’s call for 2026 is clear: nurses must have access to education, leadership opportunities, safe working environments and the support needed to care for themselves as well as others. Without this, the sustainability of health and care systems is at risk.
For many nurses, structural barriers, including financial hardship, lack of development opportunities, illness, caring responsibilities or burnout can stand in the way of professional growth. Empowerment begins when those barriers are removed.
The RCN Foundation exists to support nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers at every stage of their careers. Through our grant-making and support, we help turn potential into impact – often at moments when support is needed most.
Access to education is one of the strongest forms of empowerment. Whether it is providing grants for postgraduate study, leadership development or strengthening clinical skills, the RCN Foundation enables nurses to deepen their expertise, build confidence and lead innovation in practice. These opportunities don’t just benefit individuals – they strengthen teams, services and patient care across the UK.
Empowered nurses need stability and security. The RCN Foundation offers financial assistance to nurses experiencing hardship due to illness, family crisis or unexpected life events. This support helps nurses remain in the profession, recover their wellbeing and continue saving lives when it matters most. We are committed to ensuring that equity and inclusion underpin this support. Our recent report on the increase in hardship amongst internationally educated nurses, the inequities they face and the underlying reasons for this, affirms our intent to raising uncomfortable truths and speaking truth to power.
A key component of achieving empowerment is through addressing inequities. The RCN Foundation remains firmly committed to widening access by supporting nurses from diverse backgrounds, under-represented groups and non-traditional routes to undertake education.
Nurses are often the constant presence in people’s care journeys: at birth, in illness, in recovery and at the end of life. This was beautifully highlighted in our award-winning campaign, Here for Life, which brought into sharp focus the breadth, depth and diversity of the nursing and midwifery workforce.
When nurses are empowered, patients feel the difference. Services become safer. Communities become healthier.
International Nurses Day 2026 reminds us that the future of healthcare cannot be separated from the future of nursing. As the ICN has underscored, empowering nurses is essential to addressing workforce shortages, rising health needs and increasing system pressures worldwide.
At the RCN Foundation, we are proud to play our part – standing alongside nurses, investing in their potential and ensuring they have the support they need to save lives today and shape healthcare tomorrow.
On 12 May, we celebrate nurses not just for what they do, but for what they make possible. By empowering nurses, we invest in care that is compassionate, skilled and sustainable for everyone.
Find out more about how you can help us to continue to make a difference.