Pictured (L to R): Professor Patrice Forget; Dr Joanne O’Brien Kelly and Liisa Jutila
Dr Joanne O’Brien Kelly, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Pain Management from Beaumont Hospital, has become the first nurse to be elected to the Board of the European Pain Federation (EFIC).
Dr O’Brien Kelly’s leadership exemplifies how the NMBI Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics (2025) guides nursing at advanced practice levels.
The Code applies to all nurses and midwives, at every grade and in every setting. It sets out the professional conduct expected of our registrants and their obligation to practise in line with the six core principles — Respect, Accountability, Competence, Trust, Collaboration and Leadership. In her role as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Joanne demonstrates how these principles translate into action: leading by example in delivering best practice, keeping patients’ needs at the centre, and showing how nurses can lead the profession forward through advocacy, innovation and influence at policy level.
On 16 October, the European Pain Federation (EFIC) endorsed the Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) platform a high-level policy event ‘From Burden to Prevention: Reframing Chronic Pain in EU Health Policy’ at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Moderating the discussion was Dr O’Brien Kelly and Vice Chair of the Advocacy Committee. She was pivotal in bridging the lived-experience and clinical practice perspectives, fostering inclusive dialogue on how prevention can be operationalised across health systems and emphasising the role of nursing and advanced practice in that agenda.
The European Pain Federation EFIC is an organisation representing over 20,000 health care professionals from the field of pain management and pain science from 39 countries.
The event was attended by Dan-Stefan Motreanu, MEP, Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, MEP and Tomislav Sokol, MEP. Speakers included Professor Patrice Forget as EFIC/SIP Chair; Liisa Jutila, from Pain Alliance Europe (PAE) a patient organisation; Amy Jo Collins from the World Health Organisation; Anna van Renen from the International Longevity Centre UK and Dr Mary O’Keeffe from University College Dublin.
