Professor Kathryn Strachan, Professor and Head of School of Nursing & Midwifery Marking International Nurses Day and this year’s theme, “Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives,” Professor Kathryn Strachan reflects on the importance of fostering confidence, leadership, and strong clinical decision-making through education and supportive practice environments. Against the backdrop of the continued evolution of healthcare systems, we know that nurses play an increasingly critical role in delivering safe, compassionate, and evidence-based care. In this feature, Professor Strachan explores how empowering nurses improves patient outcomes, strengthens healthcare systems, and helps shape the future of healthcare in Bahrain and beyond.

How can nurses be “empowered to save lives”?

Nurses save lives when they feel empowered to act, especially at the point of care delivery. Empowered nurses are confident in their decision-making, have sound clinical reasoning abilities and accept responsibility for their actions. This can be evidenced through questioning decisions, speaking out when they have concerns or escalating changes in a patient’s condition before harm occurs. When empowered, nurses’ clinical decision- making improves, resulting in faster detection, accurate prioritisation and quicker intervention. For managers, creating an environment where nurses feel empowered is crucial to patient outcomes; an environment where the health care team work together, understands each other’s roles and contributions and works collaboratively for the benefit of the patient.

Why does investing in empowering nurses ultimately translate into better patient outcomes?

In an environment where nurses feel empowered, there is much less likelihood of burnout, which may affect clinical judgement, reaction time and critical thinking, ultimately impacting patient safety. With a supportive environment, empowered nurses demonstrate competence, autonomy and accountability. There is likely to be an increase in job satisfaction and retention of the workforce, leading to an improvement in continuity of patient care and, in turn, to better patient outcomes.

Can Nursing Education address the nursing workforce needs and strengthen the workforce pipeline in Bahrain?

Nursing education can help address the country’s nursing workforce needs, but it cannot be done in isolation; rather it is an interplay between education, clinical practice and national policy. As educators, we can design a curriculum to produce a practice-ready, empowered and flexible workforce. We can expand capacity by increasing student numbers, in line with clinical capacity and funding and by increasing access through flexible learning pathways. The most effective way is to work in partnership with employers and policy makers to share the responsibility for designing curricula, creating an empowering environment, providing funding and scoping the healthcare landscape to help shape the future workforce.

How are you evolving the University’s approach to ensure graduates are both practice-ready today and prepared for the future of healthcare?

At RCSI Medical University of Bahrain, our curriculum is continuously evolving to align with changes in healthcare requirements and demands. Working in tandem with our clinical partners, we have designed a curriculum that supports our future workforce. Our focus was on integrating practice early so that it constitutes 50% of the programme, starting in the first semester of year one and spiralling through the curriculum till year four, building on the acquisition of skills, knowledge and experience.

The addition of the high-fidelity simulation in our dedicated simulation centre and the integration of case-based scenarios across the curriculum means that our graduates are knowledgeable, confident and practice-ready. Embedding leadership and empowerment throughout the curriculum has resulted in empowered nursing graduates who are fit for practice, prepared for lifelong learning and ready to be future leaders.