Two half-day public seminars on Nurse Leadership were organised on the 11 and the 12 December 2023 at the Central Auditorium, Mater Dei Hospital, by the Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences. Local and international speakers spoke about nurse leadership in Malta and how nurses can lead change in healthcare settings.
The first day of the seminar was opened by Dr Stephen Lungaro Mifsud, Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, followed by Prof. Elizabeth Rosser, Prof. Emeritus at Bournemouth University, who discussed about the need of investing in nurse leadership.
Prof. Neville Calleja, Head of Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery, described the projected healthcare systems demands in Malta up to the year 2030. Mr Vince Saliba, Director Nursing Services at the Department of Health, explained his vision of nurse leadership.
Dr Daniel Bianchi, Lecturer at the Media, Communications & Technology Law at the Faculty of Law, gave an interesting talk about legal issue in healthcare in Malta. Finally, Prof. Roberta Sammut, Associate Professor at the Department of Nursing, described some studies about transformational and distributed leadership carried out in Malta.
The second day was opened by Dr Corinne Scicluna, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Nursing. This was followed by Dr Catherine Sharples, Lecturer, Department of Nursing, giving an overview of the historical factors affecting the professionalisation of nursing in Malta.
Prof. Laura Serrant, Head of Nursing and Professor of Community and Public Health Nursing in the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK provided a reflective account of her vision of nurse leadership. Mr Paul Trevatt, Royal College of Nursing (London Region), gave an inspirational talk about the need to empower nurses with leadership skills.
The seminars were closed by Prof. Elizabeth Rosser who once again gave a very interesting talk about leadership innovation and new ways of working in nursing.
Around 150 participants attended each day that consisted of nurse managers, leaders, nurse educators and students. These seminars formed part of the leadership study unit within the second years of studies of the six Master of Science in nursing (Area of Specialisation) programmes; namely in emergency care, critical care, cancer care, palliative care, infection prevention and control and in skin and wound care.
Special thanks to the Head of Department of Nursing Dr Trevor Abela Fiorentino for his support and the administrative staff for helping in organising the seminars.