EMR Youth Nurses Initiative
Empower Nurses. Save Lives

The IND Working Group.


Turning International Nurses Day into a year-round platform for youth nurse advocacy, intergenerational dialogue, and regional policy influence.

About the Working Group

The International Nurses Day (IND) Working Group is one of the action-oriented task forces of the EMR Youth Nurses Initiative. It exists to ensure that the annual global celebration of nursing is not a single symbolic event but a sustained, strategic campaign that translates frontline realities into policy priorities.

Aligned directly with EMR-YNI’s core strategic objectives—especially global advocacy, leadership development, and public health engagement—the IND Working Group designs and delivers high-impact regional convenings, digital advocacy campaigns, and evidence-based position statements. Each year, the group rallies youth nurses, senior leaders, educators, and policymakers around the ICN’s IND theme, contextualizing it for the unique challenges and strengths of the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

What We Do

  • Plan and execute the annual regional IND webinar, a flagship intergenerational dialogue.

  • Produce youth-led position statements that amplify the collective voice of EMR nurses.

  • Coordinate cross-border social media campaigns that put youth nurse stories at the center.

  • Synthesize frontline challenges into policy recommendations for WHO, ministries of health, and national nursing associations.

  • Build a growing network of young nurse advocates connected across 22 countries.

Meet the IND Working Group

Our working group is led by passionate youth nurses and supported by senior advisors, working together to turn advocacy into action.

Hagar Ibrahim
Egypt

Chair

Hanin Yousuf

Qatar

Member

John Ysmael
Qatar

Member

Keziah Marasigan
Qatar

Member

Flagship Activity: IND 2026 Webinar

“Empowering EMR Youth Nurses Saves Lives – An Intergenerational Dialogue”

9 May 2026 | 112 participants from 17 countries | Zoom Webinar

On the eve of International Nurses Day 2026, the IND Working Group convened a powerful 60-minute intergenerational dialogue. The webinar moved beyond symbolic celebration to become a strategic platform for storytelling, policy dialogue, and collective commitment.

The event featured searing frontline testimony—including from a nurse who completed his PhD while living in a tent in Gaza—alongside insights from former nursing syndicate presidents, deans of nursing, and early-career advocates. It was a space where senior leaders and youth nurses explored together what it truly means to empower nurses to save lives in one of the world’s most crisis-affected regions.

Key Highlights

  • Frontline truths

    translated into calls for action on regulation, education, and leadership inclusion.

  • A roadmap for influence

    grounded in three power bases: knowledge, experience, and relationships.

  • Cross-border solidarity

    extended beyond the session through an ongoing social media advocacy push.

  • A clear mandate

    to shift the narrative from nurses as service providers to nurses as system leaders.

120+

Registrants

94.6%

Opted in for continued engagement with EMR-YNI

26.8% 

Nursing students

The dialogue directly informed the regional position statement and set the agenda for the working group’s next steps.
Watch the Recording (YouTube) Read the Full Webinar Report (PDF)

Resources & Outputs

EMR-YNI Position Statement – International Nurses Day 2026

Aligned with the ICN theme: “Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives.”

EMR-YNI affirms that empowering nurses is essential to achieving resilient health systems and universal health coverage. We call for sustained investment in safe work environments, equitable leadership opportunities, and the meaningful inclusion of nurses’ voices in policy. As a youth-led platform, we stand for strengthening the engagement of young nurses as active contributors to innovative, community-responsive health solutions—today, not just tomorrow.

"Empowered youth nurses are not only the backbone of tomorrow’s workforce, but active contributors to innovative, community-responsive, and sustainable health solutions today."
rEAD Position Statement (PDF) 

Social Media Advocacy Campaign 

Following the webinar, EMR-YNI launched a cross-border campaign inviting youth nurses to share what “Empower Nurses to Save Lives” means in their context. Nurses from over a dozen countries submitted short video messages and written statements. These heartfelt contributions came from Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and beyond, forming a rich mosaic of frontline perspectives. The flipbook captures a selection of those statements offering a window into the region’s collective voice.