May is known for celebrating mothers, but did you know May also celebrates nurses?
National Nurses Week is celebrated annually from May 6th-12th. Nurses Week was designated to recognize the contributions that nurses make in our communities. May 6th is National Nurses Day and May 12th is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
The idea for Nurses Week began in 1953, when Dorothy Sutherland proposed a Nurse Day to the White House. This holiday was never officially proclaimed, but in 1974, the U.S. established its own National Nurses Week after the International Council of Nurses declared May 12th as International Nurse Day. In 1990, the American Nurses Association petitioned to extend the recognition to a week-long celebration, which was granted.
Nurses Week is an opportunity to show love and appreciation for the people who take care of the sick, injured and dying. From neonatal nurses who welcome newborns into the world to hospice nurses that provide comfort to patients in the final stages of life, nurses play a crucial role in the medical world.
In fact, nurses make up the largest part of the healthcare workforce today. They are the primary health providers for patients in hospitals, and they give the most long-term care in the nation.
My own mother dreamed of being a nurse. As a child of 1929, dreams were quite a bit different for her than they are today! Women would not often have a career AND a marriage. Mom was in nursing school when she and Daddy decided to get married. She had to make a choice, and she chose Daddy, giving up her dream in healthcare. She volunteered at the hospitals wherever they lived, and she was heavily involved in charities that supported children and older adults. She would have made a wonderful nurse!
Can you imagine having to make that choice? I am sure she often wondered “what if” she had chosen nursing instead. Of course, I’m glad she chose Daddy! And I definitely inherited her passion for helping others.
I love working with the nurses here at Care Advantage! In 2023, Care Advantage employed more than 15,000 professional caregivers and 200 nurses. With that strong clinical team, we served more than 18,000 patients! Our clinical team has grown, especially since the Covid pandemic. Unfortunately, the pandemic was a time when many nurses elsewhere were not given the support they needed to do their jobs properly. Our nurses were given more support, not less, and were a solution to so many families’ biggest worries.
A Care Advantage nurse spends their days developing care plans for our new patient admissions, answering questions and concerns of families, guiding our caregivers, and visiting other patients to update care plans and make sure things are going well. As close companions and observers, our nurses are also in the best position to notice potential side effects from our clients’ medications. Because they put so much effort into our patients, they are the driving force behind our outcomes and our first line of defense against preventable hospital readmissions.
We have implemented a care scale system that helps our clinical team assess additional needs for our patients. Bringing in partners is what keeps those patients safe at home and improves their quality of life! We are the poster child for helping patients age in place with the continuum of home healthcare services we provide every step of the way.
We celebrate our nurses all year long, but in honor of Nurses Week, we provided a special selection of “swag” on our company store that nurses could select for themselves. Hopefully when they carry or wear these items, they are reminded just how special we think they are!
Join me in around of applause for nurses everywhere, but especially for our Care Advantage nurses! You truly are the heartbeat of healthcare!
