Kate Middleton is set to launch a new campaign aimed at empowering nurses and recognising them as the “lynchpins of care”.

Middleton’s great-grandmother worked as a nurse during the First World War, “caring for wounded servicemen” in a field hospital in Leeds.

Nursing Now will be launched by the Duchess next month, at an event where she’ll also speak in a roundtable discussion of nurses to “find out what it means to be a 21st century nurse”. She’ll also spend the day visiting the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for an event aimed at “tackling the stigma around women’s health”.

The campaign says that “nurses are at the heart of most health teams” and should be recognised as such.

“Nurses play a crucial role in health promotion, disease prevention and treatment,” the campaign explains on its website. “As the health professionals who are closest to the community they have a particular role in developing new models of community based care and support local efforts to promote health and prevent disease.”

It comes at a time when nursing bursaries have been cut by the government, leading to a slump in applications for nursing courses and roles. In 2017, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing Janet Davies described the nursing workforce as being “in crisis”. “If fewer nurses graduate in 2020 it will exacerbate what is already an unsustainable situation,” she said.

Kate Middleton has made it her mission to empower nurses