Nurses Week Celebrated In Many Ways
By John Oncea, Editor
Follow John on Twitter: @buck25
Healthcare is recognizing nurses for not only doing the dirty work, but for helping shape the future of the industry.
Have you hugged your nurse this week? If you haven’t, there’s still time.
Nurses Week – which starts every year on May 6th – runs until May 12, which is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Nightingale, a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, is considered the founder of modern nursing. According to the Florence Nightingale Museum, “She led the nurses caring for thousands of soldiers during the Crimean War and helped save the British army from medical disaster.”
According to the American Nurses Association, the first National Nurse Week was observed October 11 – 16, 1954, as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. In January, 1974, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) proclaimed that May 12 would be "International Nurse Day" and one month later an entire week was designated by the White House as National Nurse Week, and President Nixon issued a proclamation.
Karen A. Daley, PhD, RN, FAAN, president, American Nurses Association urges nurses, in her message for the ANA Reflect on and Celebrate Your Contributions To Quality and Innovation, to “hone your instinct for curiosity and persist in your pursuit for answers.” Daley goes on to implore nurses to “Take a few moments this week to reflect on and celebrate your contributions to your patients, workplace, and community. Let a nursing colleague know how much you appreciate their contributions and how they make a difference for others.”
Some are reflecting with humor, including Kelsie Bottiggi, a Pediatric RN at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, who recently tweeted the following image:
MSNBC took a different approach, honoring nurses by enlisting the staff of Huntington Hospital in Huntington, New York to introduce the May 7 edition of “The Daily Rundown.” MSNBC’s video was just one of thousands recorded to acknowledge Nurses Week.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is running a week-long series of blog posts highlighting “the leadership and clinical innovation being taken across the nation by nurses in this time of profound change.” Judy Murphy, deputy national coordinator for programs and policy for the ONC introduces the series by writing “During the annual National Nurses Week, we are reminded that nurses in every community are intimately involved in each patient’s journey towards better health and better care now and in the future. Health IT is a tool to help us and our patients in that journey.”
Betsy Frederick, MSN-NP, a nurse practitioner (NP) with Martin’s Point Health Care in Bangor, ME, contributed the first post, writing “I consider myself a compassionate primary care provider, and I am proud to say that I am a meaningful user of health IT.” Frederick details her 11-year-history of health IT usage and advises others “just starting down the health IT journey” not to wait. “It’s a lot of work, but in the end it helps you give the best care possible,” writes Frederick.” The brain can’t remember everything. Using health IT can help and is key to providing optimal care.”
Christel Anderson, MA, and director, clinical informatics for HIMSS, took a more personal approach when reflecting on the significance of Nurses Week by writing of her mother’s attempt to recruit her to nursing. “Many times, she unsuccessfully tried to get me to go into nursing. I refused,” Anderson writes. “But she was successful in getting me to serve as a hospital volunteer.” Anderson asks readers to “Take one moment, whether professionally or personally, to think about one nurse. Then, think of all the ways nurses are touching other people’s lives,” before directing them to this video produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Health IT Outcomes gives an account of the impact nurses had on healthcare IT in its case study of Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, TN. The article centers on the challenges Michael Spivey faced when he assumed the role of CIO at Williamson, one of which was the nurse’s abandonment of the hospital’s small fleet of mobile carts some months prior, refusing once and for all to deal with their increasing unreliability.
The nurse’s dissatisfaction with the carts Williamson had been using, not to mention the back pain they were experiencing using then, forced Spivey to “devote a significant amount of time at HIMSS, in February, 2012, talking with mobile cart vendors on the show floor” before eventually purchasing carts the staff was comfortable with. The new carts had a positive effect on the health and happiness of the nurses, thereby making their job easier and improving the patient’s level of care.
Jill Kinch, MSN, APN, is president of the Tennessee Nurses Association and, writing for The Tennessean, points out that nurses aren’t only playing a role in the evolution of health IT, they are helping shape health care reform. “We recognize the contributions of all nurses as compassionate caregivers, clinicians and leaders,” Kinch writes. “We also celebrate the opportunities for nurses to contribute even more significantly to the transformation of health management by improving access to affordable care.” Kinch cites Tennessee nurses “experience and proximity to patients” as facilitating the “identification of the flaws and failures in our current delivery of care.”
While nurses are playing key roles in the future of healthcare, the future of nursing may be entering a rough patch. Kathleen Lees, writing for ScienceWorld Report, points out “There are frequently nurse shortages across the country, with problems stemming from several factors: waiting lists on nursing schools, hiring freezes, economic hardships, and a growing population that is in need of extended care.” Lees concludes “By 2020, the number of US residents over the age of 65 is expected to grow by 15 million. The demand for nurses is expected to steadily increase over the next three decades.”