Hospital stays, doctor visits and routine medical tests are often facilitated by highly-skilled nurses that often times go largely unnoticed.
But May 12th each year is recognized as International Nurses Day, culminating a week-long celebration in countries including the U.S. and falling during a similar length appreciation period in Canada.
May 12th holds significance for the nursing community as the birthday of a pioneer in the field and for women in the profession, Florence Nightingale. The International Council of Nurses produces educational materials for nurses worldwide to use on this day and throughout the year for a variety of group activities.
The 2009 theme for International Nurses Day is Delivering Quality, Serving Communities: Nurses Leading Care Innovations.
Given the extensive amount of work nurses do behind the scenes to advance treatment and processes addressing a number of health issues, May 12th is a day to recognize and appreciate those efforts.
"Novel solutions by nurses represent a vital element in efforts to address current and future global health challenges – challenges such as aging populations, HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, an increase in noncommunicable diseases, poverty, inadequate resources and workforce shortages," wrote Hiroko Minami and David C. Benton, president and CEO respectively, in International Council of Nurses information distributed for the day.
"Nurses worldwide are engaged in innovative activities on a daily basis – activities motivated by the desire to improve patient care outcomes and the need to reduce costs to the health system. Many of these initiatives have resulted in significant improvements in the health of patients, populations and health systems," read the executives’ statement.
In the U.S., a separate celebration for 2009 focused on the theme Nurses: Building a Healthy America. Given the varying skills needed to be successful in the nursing field, the American Nurses Association calls the profession a mix of both art and science.