Celebrating National Nurses Day
Today marks the first day of National Nurses Week honoring our Nation’s caregivers. We would like to give a big thank you to all registered nurses and especially to our senior caregivers.
Photo Credit | 123RF | @ Shojiro Ishihara
National Nurses Week is celebrated the week of Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12th. Florence Nightingale, born in 1820 and died in 1910, was an English social reformer and statistician and 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.” – Florence Nightingale’s Pledge as the founder of modern nursing.
United States Representative, Frances P Bolton, sponsored a bill for National Nurses Day in 1955, a year after the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. Unfortunately the bill saw no action from the government.
It wasn’t until March 25, 1982, when President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation that National Nurses week started to become a nationally celebrated day.
This coming week, tell your nurse, your mother who is a nurse or your friend, Happy Nurses Week and say thanks for all that they do!