WHO/Europe's nursing and midwifery programme aims to support countries by helping nurses and midwives:

• to continue to be a force for health, based on the Munich Declaration, and to tackle today's challenges;
• to harmonize nursing and midwifery education in the European Region;
• to create evidence-based knowledge on nursing and midwifery;
• to ensure the provision of high-quality, accessible, equitable, efficient and sensitive health services;
• to ensure continuity of care and address people's changing needs.

Nurses and midwives (about 6 million) comprise the majority of health care professionals in Europe, accounting for about 60% of most health care budgets. Nurses and midwives are essential resources to ensure high-quality health care.

Nurses and midwives must have a solid evidence-based education that enables them to meet the changing needs of a population by working, on their own and in teams with other professionals, in a variety of settings and along the entire continuum  of health and illness. In addition, their work needs systematic evaluation to show its efficiency and effectiveness.

Six WHO collaborating centres on nursing and midwifery work with the WHO/Europe programme to achieve these aims.