Editorial: National Nurses Week
Published 4:00 pm Sunday, May 12, 2019
Everyone has a nurse story.
The scared kid who broke a bone.
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The cancer patient.
The mother in labor.
The father in surgery.
The family waiting to hear.
Nurses have nurse stories too.
The nurse who mentored them.
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The nurse who taught them.
The nurse who inspired them or encouraged them to go into nursing.
The nurse who talked them through the transition from classroom to hospital corridors.
Doctors have nurse stories as well.
Stories about their dedication.
Their long hours.
Their skills, their knowledge.
Their steady hand.
Where would we be without nurses?
Thankfully, that’s not a question we have to answer.
National Nurses Week traditionally ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
Nightingale was born to a wealthy family, but believed nursing was her divine calling.
Against her parent’s wishes, she started taking her first nursing classes in 1850.
Nightingale’s life story is astonishing, as are her accomplishments, both on the nursing profession as a whole and on the individual patients she cared for.
The world is better for her having been in it.
The same can be said of all nurses.