Australian heads ICN.

Australasia is well represented on the International Council of Nurses (ICN), with Australia's chief nurse and midwifery officer, Rosemary Bryant, elected as ICN president, and outgoing NZNO president Marion Guy securing a place on the ICN board. Bryant, ICN's second vice president, was elected at the Council of National Representatives (CNR) meeting during ICN's 24th quadrennial congress in Durban, South Africa, late last month. New ICN board members were also elected at the CNR meeting, with Guy gaining a place on the board.

Bryant was second ICN vice president from 2005-2009 and was executive director of Australia's Royal College of Nursing for eight years before being appointed to Australia's top nursing and midwifery role last year. NZNO supported her bid for the ICN presidency. She succeeds Hiroko Minami and will have a four-year term.

More than 5000 nurses from 134 countries attended the congress, the first on the African continent, and of those, 3300 were from Africa.

NZNO's delegation to the congress included Guy, Te Runanga o Aotearoa NZNO kaiwhakahaere Brenda Close, chief executive Geoff Annals, and Te Runanga members Kerri Nuku, Leanne Lloyd, Nadine Archibald, Tania Hooper and Pari Tautari (who all gave presentations). (Full congress report in next month's issue.)