In the U.S., National Nurses Week began last week on May 6 which is designated as National Nurses Day. The 2009 theme is Nurses Building a Healthy America. Nurses Week culminates on May 12 each year which is the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.
Florence Nightingale
Nightingale is often credited with founding the nursing profession, however nurses have been around for centuries and the first nurses were actually men. Today men make up only about 6-7% of the nursing workforce in the U.S. and about 35% of the military nursing force.
Florence Nightingale understood and proved the need for sanitary conditions to reduce infection and increase survival rates on the battlefield in the Crimean War. She also introduce the idea of formal training for women to become nurses and helped to start the first nursing school for women upon her return to London in 1860.
International Nurses Day
To honor Nightingale, May 12 is International Nurses Day as set by the International Council of Nurses which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and represents nurses in 188 countries. The ICN’s theme for International Nurses Day for 2009 is Delivering Quality Serving Communities: Nurse Leading Care Innovations.
According to the ICN, innovation is central to maintaining and improving quality of care. Nurses are always striving to provide the best quality care possible. Health care is an environment of constant change and challenges. Nurses are flexible and meet these challenges head on.
As the population ages and grows, nursing rises to the challenges of the growing demands of this aging population, and does so even in the face of diminishing resources. The nursing workforce is aging as well, and the shortage of nurses is growing at a constant rate towards critical levels.
Canada's Nurses Week
Canada is also celebrating nurses this week. Nurses Week runs from May 11 to May 17, 2009. The theme this year is appropriate, Nursing: You Can’t Live Without It. Nurses Day in Canada, as in many other countries worldwide, coincides with International Nurses Day on May 12.
Shortage of Nurses Grows
While the Great Recession has brought many retired nurses back to the field, and slowed the retirement rate, this is only a temporary reprieve in the growing shortage of nurses. It is estimated that by 2025, there will be a need for at least 500,000 new and replacement nurses. This shortage is not confined to the U.S. There is a growing shortage of nurses world wide. Nursing schools turned away a record 41,385 qualified applicants in 2008 because of a shortage of nursing faculty, and clinical facilities.
Celebrating Nurses Day and Nurses Week honors nurses throughout the world for their contributions to health and wellness, and quality patient care. It should also bring attention to the need for increased funding of nursing workforce and education projects to reduce the shortage of nurses.
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