Judith Oulton, Chief Executive Officer, International Council of Nurses

Nurses play a critical role in health care across the globe. In Africa nurses typically deliver the vast majority of primary health care – up to 80%. In 2001, The Merck Company Foundation began a partnership with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to assist nurses in rural Africa gain critical access to quality health care information.

The ICN/Merck Mobile Library Project provides traveling libraries of health education and reference materials, including donated copies of The Merck Manual - Home Edition. Each ICN/Merck Mobile Library contains up-to-date information on family and community health, disease prevention, health promotion and health services. In 2006, Merck and ICN launched a second program, the Nursing Libraries for Refugee Health, together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Here is a discussion with Judith Oulton, CEO, International Council of Nurses, on the value of the partnership between The Merck Company Foundation and ICN.

• Q: What has been the impact of the support your organization has received from The Merck Company Foundation?
• JO: The Merck Company Foundation has collaborated with and supported ICN to deliver up-to-date knowledge to nurses in sub-Saharan Africa, through the innovative and effective Mobile Library program. To date, ICN and the Foundation have delivered more than 180 libraries to nurses working in remote areas of 16 African countries. In addition, more than 60,000 Merck Manuals have been given to individual nurses. For many, this will have been the only book they have ever called their own.
  
  In 2006, the Mobile Library programme took on a dramatic expansion -- reaching out to nurses serving the most vulnerable and marginalised populations in the region – those living in refugee settings. The libraries are increasing access to the latest nursing/health information and providing training to improve the quality of health care provided to the continent’s 5.2 million refugees. Extending the ICN/MSD Nursing Libraries program to health workers in refugee camps is a huge step in reaching the underserved.
• Q: How has Merck Company Foundation support helped the ICN create sustainable solutions that address critical societal needs?
• JO: The Foundation's partnership with ICN is grounded in a shared conviction that quality health care begins with access to quality health care information. An informed nursing profession unlocks the door to prevention and treatment for so many who have gone without and provides sustainable improvement in health care delivery.
  
  Improving the quality of health information accessible in remote regions and refugee camps is not a small challenge, but with The Merck Company Foundation/ICN partnership it is happening. The nurses who work in the field usually have no health care reference books. They are far from a well-furnished hospital, making it difficult to receive expert advice on critical health care issues. The access to current health information provided by the ICN/Merck Nursing Mobile Libraries is a goldmine for them.
• Q: What is the value to your organization of your partnership with The Merck Company Foundation?
• JO: The value of the ICN-Merck Foundation partnership and the Mobile Library program to ICN, its member associations, to nurses working in remote areas and to the populations they serve, cannot be underestimated. While supporting ICN in its mission to strengthen nursing and health systems, the program also contributes to building capacity in nursing associations and most importantly to improving the quality of health care delivered to vulnerable populations. In the words of a nursing mobile library manager in Kenya: “God bless the mobile library.”