Celebrating the history of human caring in Malta

In anticipation of a proposed global nursing conference, which will be held in Malta in 2009, representatives of the International Association for Human Caring (IAHC) met recently with some of Malta's nursing leaders at the Institute of Health Care (IHC).

Grace Jaccarini, co-ordinator of nursing and midwifery studies, and Roberta Sammut, co-ordinator of nursing and midwifery curricula at IHC, together with others, discussed with IAHC members Patrick Dean and Kathryn Vigen, a past Fulbright Scholar to Malta to co-found Maltese nursing undergraduate education, ideas for sponsorship and underwriting the conference.

The event will partly focus on the history of caring for human life, as exemplified by the Knights of St John, and the establishment of one of the world's first hospitals. This conference will also include a theme of gender inclusiveness in nursing as a way to recognise the perspective of women and men as caring nurses.

Five hundred nurses, and members of related disciplines, are expected to attend from approximately 20 countries, including Iran and Pakistan. Ideas discussed at the meeting included garnering support from the IHC at the University of Malta, health administration in the Maltese government, and business enterprises sympathetic to the ideals of the IAHC non-profit organisation.

Having just returned from the IAHC conference in Fremantle, Western Australia, Mr Dean said that a special appeal will be made to Maltese nurses living in Australia to attend this event in their home country.

The purpose of the IAHC is to research, educate and practice globally the art and science of human caring in healthcare, the environment, and in society at large. The organisation was founded almost 30 years ago by nursing leaders in the United States and holds annual conferences throughout the world.