School of Nursing first to be awarded associate member status of United Nations NGO

Clinical Professor Judy Pechacek, Densford Center Director Teddie Potter and Densford Center Director Holly Shaw at the United Nations in New York City.

The Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing was awarded associate member status in the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO). It is the first school of nursing to achieve the status in the world.

“The associate member status in the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations provides yet another potent pathway for the School of Nursing to create and participate in a multitude of opportunities to co-create health at a global level,” says Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP. “It brings visibility of nursing and academic nursing to the top of the United Nations and is an important achievement for the school and nursing.”

As a non-governmental organization in general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, CoNGO’s work relates to the entire United Nations system: the secretariat, agencies, treaty bodies, regional commissions, institutes, summits and world conferences. The associate member status provides opportunities to participate in a range of United Nations events, meetings and conferences, and includes opportunities for leadership.

Already, the Densford Center is hosting a Commission on the Status of Women Parallel Event Innovative Approaches to Informatics and Big Data for SDGs and Health on March 17 with faculty and international panelists. Additionally, planning is underway to create an immersion experience for Doctor of Nursing Practice students.

“We can participate in committees as members, thought leaders and problem solvers and reach out to the entire UN community,” says Holly Shaw, PhD, RN, a Densford Center director with extensive nursing leadership within the United Nations. “Nurses have the skills and the expertise to be able to be critical thought leaders, negotiators and problem solvers. I think our input is very badly needed in the UN system in many areas.”

Faculty and students have already participated in UN programs. Clinical Professor Teddie Potter, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP, Densford Center director and director of Planetary Health, presented at several climate change events and students have attended various events and conferences. The school assisted in transitioning what was scheduled to be an in-person 2020 World Health Day event celebrating the work of nurses and midwives to a virtual one at the beginning of COVID pandemic, when the UN wasn’t accustomed to hosting virtual events. “That was an important contribution,” says Shaw, who says the associate member status was the next step to further engage with the United Nations.

“Traditional thinking equates nursing with health care,” says Potter. “The more radical way of thinking is that nursing is everywhere because health is everywhere. Nurses shouldn’t just be on the health committee, they need to be on all of the committees. Transportation, housing, women’s rights, the status of children. We need to be at the table because health is at the table.”