National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th which is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. This week celebrates the vital role nurses play in delivering safe, quality patient care. The theme for this year’s event, chosen by the American Nurses Association, is ‘Ethical Practice. Quality Care’ and recognizes the importance of ethics in nursing and acknowledges the strong commitment, compassion and care nurses display in their practice and profession.

As of 1998, May 8 was designated as National Student Nurses Day, to be celebrated annually. And as of 2003, National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday within National Nurses Week each year. The nursing profession has been supported and promoted by the American Nurses Association (ANA) since 1896.

Nursing is a very technical field and nurses are always learning new things – from new treatments and medical technologies to new protocols and procedures.We trust nurses to stay calm during chaos, to make split-second decisions that help save lives.

Nursing can also very a very emotional job. They very often get to know their patients and their loved ones very well. Nursing care requires empathy, understanding and feeling another’s pain. Nurses instinctively know that their behavior and demeanor can help patients feel better, and instill hope.

This National Nurses Week, take time to thank and appreciate the nurses you know who do so much for so many.

Florence Nightingale Pledge

This modified “Hippocratic Oath” was composed in 1893 by Mrs. Lystra E. Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School for Nurses, Detroit, Michigan. It was called the Florence Nightingale Pledge as a token of esteem for the founder of modern nursing.

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.