In June 2025, faculty and staff from the Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS) and Global Action in Nursing (GAIN), along with their collaborators from Partners in Health and GAIA Global Health, joined more than 7,000 nurses, researchers and health leaders at the 30th International Council of Nurses (ICN) Congress in Helsinki, Finland. Hosted in partnership with the Finnish Nurses Association, this year’s gathering was especially historic, commemorating 100 years since Finland last hosted the Congress and celebrating a century of nursing leadership and progress.
This year’s theme, “Nursing Power to Change the World,” highlighted the essential role nurses play in advancing health equity, shaping global health policy and driving innovation in care delivery. During the conference, the GAIN team showcased the power of partnerships in advancing equity.
GAIN is dedicated to preventing complications and death during childbirth by both increasing the number of new nurses and midwives and providing clinical and leadership training and long-term mentorship to those already working in high-risk communities. The GAIN team brought sixteen leads from their network to Helsinki, with representatives from Sierra Leone, Malawi, Liberia and Lesotho presenting ten innovative projects, eight of which were led by GAIN’s global partners.
GAIN team members addressed some of the most pressing challenges in nursing and midwifery through their presentations and high-level engagements. Joalane Mabathoana, GAIN lead from Lesotho, traveled with the Head of Nursing Clinical Services from the Lesotho Ministry of Health, creating an impactful platform for aligning nursing research priorities with national leadership. This pairing exemplifies GAIN’s commitment to embedding research within ministry-led health system goals.
Notable GAIN highlights also included a presentation by Patricia Efe Azikiwe (Sierra Leone) on integrating mental health evaluation into routine perinatal assessment, and work by Evelyn Bigini (U.S. team), who is developing a dissertation on caregiver mental health in neonatal intensive care units in collaboration with Patricia and GAIN’s broader research network.
“Until nurses and midwives are truly recognized as leaders in the quest for health equity, progress will be slow. Their proximity to patients gives them a unique lens to identify and solve care delivery challenges. At UCSF, the GAIN team learns from our colleagues daily. We are here to support their vision and advocacy,” shared Kimberly Baltzell, RN, PhD, MS, GAIN Director and professor in UCSF’s School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. “The time together in Helsinki allowed us to strengthen relationships, deepen the work, and recommit to the power of nurse and midwifery-led systems change.”
With representatives from 135 countries, the ICN Congress was a powerful reminder of the global strength and unity of the nursing profession.