Happy National Nurses Week

To all my readers, nurses and nursing students alike, I hope this week, especially, brings you some appreciation from others for the work you do and care you provide for patients and clients and their families. Nurses are the lifeblood of the healthcare system, not just because of their numbers (4 million strong) but because of their knowledge, skills, compassion, and ethic of care.

Nurses are the ones caring for patients 24/7. We are the ones who promote and deliver evidence-based and high-quality health care in a variety of roles – caregiver, team member, collaborator, leader, educator, researcher, expert. We are the ones who use our clinical and professional expertise to advocate for patients and for our profession.

Nurses can make a difference in this world and I urge you to heed the voice of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) President Annette Kennedy: “…The time is ripe for nurses to assert their leadership. As the largest health profession across the world, working in all areas where health care is provided, nursing has vast potential and value if appropriately harnessed to finally achieve the vision of Health for All” (ICN’s 2019 theme)(Stewart, Burton, White, Salmon, & McClelland, 2019).

“The time is ripe for nurses to assert their leadership. As the largest health profession across the world, working in all areas where health care is provided, nursing has vast potential and value if appropriately harnessed to finally achieve the vision of Health for All.” Annette Kennedy, President International Council of Nurses

National Nurses Week in the USA

The American Nurses Association (ANA) established  May 6-12 “as the national week to celebrate and elevate the nursing profession… [and] recognize the vast contributions and positive impact of America’s 4 million registered nurses” (www.ana.org). The American Nurses Association’s theme for National Nurses Week 2019 is: “4 Million Reasons to Celebrate” Scroll down for info about a free ANA webinar and toolkit available for download.

Did you know that Nurses Week used to be observed in February? Celebrating nurses and their contributions to healthcare didn’t really start as an annual celebration in the US until 1990, though many tried to get nurses recognized earlier. In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare proposed a Nurse Day for October, but President Eisenhower did not take action on this proposal. The next year, in 1954, National Nurse Week was celebrated – one time – October 11-16 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s work in Crimea. Though attempts were made to get Congress to declare an annual week of national recognition, they were not successful (American Nurses Association, n.d.).

The first government recognition of an annual National Nurse Week came in 1974 by President Nixon and was celebrated in February. “National Recognition Day for Nurses” was officially proclaimed as May 6 by President Reagan in 1982. After much work over the years by the American Nurses Association, National Nurses Week became an annual recognition. So now National Nurses Week starts on May 6 (National RN Recognition Day) and ends on Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12th (ANA, 2019).

By the way, National Student Nurses’ Day is celebrated on May 8 and National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday of National Nurses Week.

To register for a free Nursing Webinar (May 8th, 1:00 pm EDT) in honor of National Nurses Week, go to ANA’s webpages featuring National Nursing Week activities and scroll down for the registration information. Follow National Nurses Week activities and info on social media using #NursesWeek.

 

As in other countries, specialty nurses in the U.S. celebrate at other times throughout the year, too. You can download a calendar of Nursing Appreciation days by clicking on either of the following links from NursingCE.com or Nurse.com. 

International Recognition of Nurses

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) designated May 12th as International Nurses Day in 1974, though they have officially celebrated international nurses day since 1965. Nurses all over the world are celebrated with ceremonies, religious services, and other recognitions. The ICN International Nurses Day theme for 2019 is Nurses: A voice to lead – Health for All.

You can click on this link to get their Guidance pack – which is extremely informative and interesting! The ICN states that in the Guidance pack “you will find everything you need to campaign for access to health and universal health coverage, and to provide the evidence you need to convince others that nurses have a leading role in achieving Health for All. Use our resource and evidence pack, our video, our posters, or our social media banners to spread the word and use your voice to lead!” This pack is also available in French and Spanish.

 

 

 

 

 

The Canadian Nurses Association also celebrates nurses every year. Their National Nursing Week are the same dates as in the U.S. and their theme echoes the ICN theme of Health for All. Their website has ideas for how to celebrate nurses!

Nurses in other countries celebrate International Nurse Day on May 12th. Some nursing organizations celebrate specialty nurses all through the year, too. For example, the European Perioperative Nurses celebrate on February 15th and the Australian Nurse Midwives are celebrated on May 5th.

A Few Ideas to Show Appreciation

Of course, nurses should be valued every day of the week! The Healthy Work Environment standards, developed and promoted by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), include Meaningful Recognition as one of the six standards. This standard states that “Nurses must be recognized and must recognize others for the value each brings to the work of the organization” and requires that a recognition process is in place in the institution. Importantly, the form of recognition has to be meaningful to the person.

You could Google “national nurses week 2019 gifts” for traditional gift ideas and many sites will pop up. Amazon has just about everything – gifts for nurses week, included. The ANA has themed gifts for nurses week in their online store. (Full disclosure: I am an affiliate for Amazon and may receive a small commission if you click through my link, at no extra cost to you! It’s one way I can keep the website running, so thank you for that support. You can always go directly to the Amazon site, also, of course.)

Many hospitals and healthcare institutions will celebrate their nursing staff during National Nurses Week or specialty celebrations somehow — maybe with a ceremony, awards, lunch, poster session, guest speakers, and/or free stuff. If you are given a choice, I’d encourage you to tell your institutions that you’d like a “gift” that promotes your continued excellence as nurses. I mean, seriously, how many water bottles do you need?

So what would that “continued excellence” gift be? Free continuing education? More tuition help? A CINAHL subscription in the hospital library? Books? Journal subscriptions? How about paying your membership fee to a professional nursing organization or to Nursing Education Expert? What would make you feel valued?

If you are a patient or family member, writing a note to the nurse manager and your individual nurses will be much appreciated. Besides the immediate recognition in the unit and the joy the nurse will get from your kindness, the note can be used as evidence of excellence in patient care for the nurse’s portfolio and performance plan.

If you are a nursing student, writing a personal note is also much appreciated by the nurses who precepted you and to nurse educators! I can tell you from personal experience as a preceptor, unit teacher, and faculty member how gratifying it is to be recognized for your hard work and guidance of students and orientees. Trust me – this is definitely a way to engender good will. 

These notes are also evidence of competence, caring, and respect that can be used for one’s annual performance review. 

How is your institution or country celebrating the important work that nurses do? Let us know in the Comments. It will be fun to see how nurses are celebrated across the world!​​​​​​​

How to Cite this Blog post in 6th ed. APA: Thompson, C. J. (2019, May 6). Celebrate National Nurses Week! [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://nursingeducationexpert.com/national-nurses-week

References and Sources

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). (2016). Standards for establishing and sustaining healthy work environments: A journey to excellence (2^nd ed.). [Executive summary]. Retrieved from https://www.aacn.org/~/media/aacn-website/nursing-excellence/healthy-work-environment/execsum.pdf?la=en

American Nurses Association. (2019). National Nurses Week [Web page]. Retrieved from https://pages.nursingworld.org/ana-2035_nnw19_phase2

Canadian Nurses Association. (2019). National Nursing Week 2019 [Event notice]. Retrieved from https://www.cna-aiic.ca/en/events/national-nursing-week 

International Council of Nurses (ICN). (2019). International Nurses Day [Web page]. Retrieved from https://www.icn.ch/what-we-do/campaigns/international-nurses-day

Stewart, D., Burton, E., White, J., Salmon, M., & McClelland, A. (2019). Health for all: Nursing, global health and universal health coverage. [International Nurses Day 2019 Resources and Evidence guidance pack]. Geneva, Switzerland: International Council of Nurses. Retrieved from https://2019.icnvoicetolead.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ICN_Design_EN.pdf