Today is International Nurses Day 2025!

This day is celebrated globally every year on 12^th May - the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. 

Building on the success of the 2024 theme, this year shines a light onto the health and wellbeing of nurses and underscores the critical role a healthy nursing workforce plays in improving health systems and ensuring better outcomes for communities worldwide.

We caught up with four of the REVERSE project nurses to find out what motivates them, how they care for their patients and practise self-care, their dream superpowers, and more!

Meet the Nurses

Carlotta Hidalgo López is an infection control nurse in the epidemiology and evaluation department at Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain. 

Alejandro Araújo Ameijeiras works a research and study nurse for the infectious diseases investigation group at the Institute for Health Research Galicia Sur, Spain.

Anastasia Kiousi is a research nurse, based in Athens, Greece at the Ippokrateio General Hospital. 

Claudia Vázquez Estévez also be found working as a study nurse for the infectious diseases investigation group at the Institute for Health Research Galicia Sur, Spain.

What first sparked your interest in becoming a nurse?

Honestly, I felt it was what I wanted to do with my life. Now, 20 years after making that choice, I think that is still the best choice I could have made. (Carlotta)

For others, nursing was a way into healthcare coupled with a deep-rooted curiosity about the hospital environment and a will to do a job with visible results - to help ease pain and stress for those in need.

What skills or qualities do you think are most important for nurses to have?

The nurses felt overwhelming that a combination of different skills, both technical and interpersonal are needed.

Critical thinking, teamwork, empathy, adaptability, communication, multi-tasking, patience, flexibility, emotional resilience, and the motivation to stay up-to-date were the top mentioned skills.

What's the most rewarding part of your work within the REVERSE Project?

On this question, all the nurses were united in their answers. Seeing first hand that the choices and changes made are having a real-time and direct impact on their patients and making a positive change was unanimous. 

How do you take care of yourself while taking care of others?

It took years to understand that the only way to take care of others is to take care of myself as well.

The REVERSE nurses are an active yet diverse group - all of them understand that maintaining a healthy lifestyle, being active, and spending time with friends and family outside of work are critical to their own self-care. This attentiveness to their mental and physical health allows them to be these best possible nurses they can be for their patients. 

If you could have any superpower as a nurse, what would it be?

With that, we say thank you to Carlota, Alejandro, Anastasia, and Claudia for their time and for illuminating the dedication that defines their profession. 

On this International Nurses Day, we want to say a resounding thank you to all nurses across the globe. Your commitment is invaluable and we are deeply grateful.