[HOLIDAY PARTY!] MAY 6 – MAY 12 2020 – NATIONAL NURSES WEEK with Deidre Emerson

HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES WEEK! Join us as we celebrate the people out there doing heavy lifting in hospitals and saving lives. Today we’re partying with sister, master Tweeter and nurse Deidre Emerson (@lilredrooster)!! LET’S PARTY!!

Part 1

Part 2

Show Notes

Activities to Celebrate

Playlist

Sources

Visit HOLIDAY PARTY! with Disa & Alyssa’s main page

Show Notes

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Definition, history of the topic

  • According to Wikipedia, nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life
    • Nurses may be differentiated from other health care providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice
    • Nurses practice in many specialties with differing levels of prescription authority
    • Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of physicians, and this traditional role has shaped the public image of nurses as care providers. However, nurse practitioners are permitted by most jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings
    • Since the postwar period (the time following WWII), nurse education has undergone a process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials, and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing
    • Nurses develop a plan of care, working collaboratively with physicians, therapists, the patient, the patient’s family, and other team members that focuses on treating illness to improve quality of life
    • In the US and UK, advanced practice nurses diagnose health problems and prescribe medications and other therapies, depending on individual state regulations
    • Nurses provide care both interdependently, for example with physicians, and independently as nursing professionals
    • Though often working collaboratively, nursing does not “assist” medicine or other fields. Nursing operates independent of, not auxiliary to, medicine and other disciplines. Nurses’ roles range from direct patient care and case management to establishing nursing practice standards, developing quality assurance procedures, and directing complex nursing care systems
  • The International Council of Nurses offers the following definition: “Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups, and communities, sick or well, and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled, and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles.”
  • In almost all countries, nursing practice is defined and governed by law, and entrance to the profession is regulated at the national or state level
    • In the US, scope of practice is determined by the state or territory in which a nurse is licensed
    • Usually the make of rules and regulations is delegated to a state board of nursing, which performs day-to-day administration of these rules, licenses for nurses and nursing assistants, and makes decisions on nursing issues. In some states, the term “nurse” or “nursing” may only be used in conjunction with the practice of a registered nurse (RN) or licensed practical or vocational nurse (LPN/LVN)
  • The aim of the nursing community worldwide is for its professionals to ensure quality care of all, while maintaining their credentials, code of ethics, standards, and competencies, and continuing their education
  • There are a number of educational paths to becoming a professional nurse, which vary greatly worldwide; all involve extensive study of nursing theory and practice as well as training in clinical skills
    • In the US, the oldest method of education is the hospital-based diploma program, which lasts approximately 3 years
      • The most common initial nursing education is a two-year college degree, Associate Degree in Nursing
      • A third method is to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, which is a 4 year degree that also prepares nurses for graduate-level education
        • Graduate education is done at the master’s and doctoral levels. It prepares the graduate for specialization as an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) or for advanced roles in leadership, management, or education
        • The clinical nurse leader (CNL) is an advanced generalist who focuses on the improvement of quality and safety outcomes for patients for patient populations from an administrative and staff management focus
        • Doctoral programs in nursing prepare the student for work in nursing education, health care administration, clinical research, public policy, or advanced clinical practice. Most programs confer the PhD in nursing or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).
        • Areas of advanced nursing practice include that of a nurse practitioner (NP), a certified nurse midwife (CNM), a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), or a clinical nurse specialist (CNS). Nurse practitioners and CNSs work assessing, diagnosing and treating patients in fields as diverse as family practice, women’s health care, emergency nursing, acute/critical care, psychiatry, geriatrics, or pediatrics, additionally, a CNS usually works for a facility to improve patient care, do research, or as a staff educator.
      • Completion of any one of these three educational routes allows a graduate to take the NCLEX-RN, the test for licensure as a registered nurse, and is accepted by every state as an adequate indicator of minimum competency for a new graduate
  • It’s the most diverse of all health care professions. Generally nursing is divided depending on the needs of the person being nursed. The major populations are:
    • Communities/public
    • Family/individual across their lifespan
    • Adult-gerontology
    • Neonatal
    • Women’s health/gender-related
    • Mental health
    • Informations (eHealth)
    • Acute care hospitals
    • Ambulatory settings (physicians offices, urgent care settings, camps, etc.)
    • School/college infirmaries
  • There are also specialist areas such as cardiac, orthopedic, palliative care, perioperative, obstetrical, oncology, nursing informatics, telenursing, radiology, and emergency nursing
  • Nurses practice in a wide range of settings, including hospitals, private homes, schools, pharmaceutical companies, occupational or industrial health settings, free-standing clinics and offices, nurse-led clinics, long-term care facilities, cruise ships, and in military service, among many others
  • There are many significant occupational hazards that nurses face
    • Nurses can be found to work in generally poor environmental conditions
    • Some countries and states have passed legislation regarding acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios
    • Nurses are at risk for injuries and illnesses, including high occupational stress
      • Nurses have among the highest levels of occupational stress when compared to other professions
      • This is caused by the environment, psychosocial stressors, and the demands of the job, which includes mastering new technology, the emotional labor involved in the job, physical labor, shift work, and high workload
      • This stress puts nurses at risk for health problems, including but not limited to: sleep disorders, depression, mortality, psychiatric disorders, stress-related illnesses, illness in general, compassion fatigue, moral distress, occupational burnout, and emotional exhaustion
      • They are also at risk for violence and abuse in the workplace
        • Of American nurses, 57% reported in 2011 that they had been threatened at work, and 17% were physically assaulted

History of nursing and a condensed historical timeline

  • The word “nurse” originally came from the Latin word “nutrire”, meaning to suckle, referring to a wet-nurse
    • Though there is a lack of source material, nursing in general has long been an extension of the wet-nurse function of women
    • It was in the later 16th century that it attained its modern meaning of a person who cares for the infirm
  • Streams of nurses dedicate to service on religious principles have been generated by most cultures
    • It wasn’t until the 19th century that nursing became a secular profession
  • Following the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, leading to an expansion of the provision of care
    • From the earliest days of Christianity, Christians were encouraged to tend the sick
  • Around 370 and 390 CE, the first general hospitals were established by St. Basil the Great in Asia Minor, and Saint Fabiola in Rome, respectively
  • Christian emphasis on practical charity gave rise to the development of systematic nursing and hospitals after the end of the persecution of the early church
    • Some hospitals also maintained library and training programs, and doctors compiled their medical and pharmacological studies in manuscripts
    • Thus in-patient medical care in the sense of what we today consider a hospital, was in invention driven by Christian mercy and Byzantine innovation
  • Hospitals in Medieval Europe followed a similar pattern, wherein they were religious communities, with care provided by monks and nuns
  • During the 10th century, the monasteries became a dominant factor in hospital work
  • In the 1500s, Protestant reformers, led by Martin Luther, generally closed all the convents and most of the hospitals, sending women home to become housewives, often against their will
    • They rejected the notion that rich men could gain God’s grace through good works – and thereby escape purgatory – by providing cash endowments to charitable institutions
    • They also rejected that the poor patients earned grace and salvation through their suffering
    • Some hospitals were allowed to continue their work, but without monks or nuns and in the control of local governments
  • In 1645, French nurse Jeanne Mance established Hotel-Dieu (hostel of God) de Montreal, North America’s first hospital
  • Modern nursing began in the 19th century in Germany and Britain, and spread worldwide by 1900
  • The nursing role was revived in Germany in 1836 when Theodor Fliedner and his wife Friederike Munster opened the first deaconess motherhouse in Kaiserswerth
  • Also during this period, which was considered the Age of Reason, a time during which lots of myths were contradicted by scientific fact, Jamaican “doctresses” such as Mary Seacole, and later on Cubah Cornwallis, Sarah Adams, and Grace Donne, had great success using hygiene and herbs to heal the sick and wounded
  • In 1851, Florence Nightingale completed her nursing training at Kaiserswerth
  • And in 1853, The Crimean War began.
    • A military conflict that resulted in the Russian Empire losing to an alliance between the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain, and Sardinia
    • The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, an area located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire
    • The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at the Ottoman Empire’s expense
    • A total of 140K people died and 80K wounded
    • The last veteran of the war died in 2004
      • Timothy the Tortoise (1839 or 1844-2004), who was the naval mascot of HMS Queen
      • Also was a female. And the UK’s oldest resident
  • Florence Nightingale and 38 volunteer nurses were sent to Turkey in October 1854 to assist with caring for the injured of the Crimean War
    • In 1859, she published “Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not”
  • Nightingale’s revelation of the abysmal nursing care afforded soldiers in the Crimean War energized reformers
    • Hospitals were built to train Army nurses and surgeons and nurses were formally appointed to Military General Hospitals
  • In 1863, the International Red Cross was established in Geneva, Switzerland
  • Before the 1870s, “women working in North American urban hospitals typically were untrained, working class, and accorded lowly status by both the medical profession… and society at large.” Nursing had much the same lowly status in Europe.
  • In 1872-73, formal nursing training programs were established
  • In 1873, Linda Richards graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses and officially becomes America’s First Trained Nurse
    • She and Agnes Elizabeth Jones established quality nursing schools in the US and Japan
  • North American hospitals took the lead in applying Nightingale’s model to their training programs
    • As one example, Isabel Hampton Robb, as director of the new Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses, deliberately set out to use advanced training to upgrade the social status of nursing to a middle class career, instead of the a low pay, low status, long hours, and heavy work job for working-class women
  • In 1875, Mary Eliza Mahoney graduated from the same school as Linda Richards and became the first black professional nurse in the US
  • In 1881, Clara Barton becomes the first president of the American Red Cross, which she founded
  • The International Council of Nurses was formed in 1899
  • In 1902, Ellen Dougherty of New Zealand became the first registered nurse in the world, after the country became the first to regulate nurses nationally in 1901
  • The autonomous, nursing-controlled, Nightingale-era schools came to an end in the early 1900s. Schools became controlled by hospitals, and formal “book learning” was discouraged in favor of clinical experience. Hospitals used student nurses as cheap labor
  • The role of public health nurse began in LA in 1898. By 1924, there were 10K public health nurses, half of them in the 100 largest cities. Their average annual salary in larger cities was $1390, which, adjusted for inflation comes to about $21K today. 
    • The average salary for a public health nurse today is actually around $58k
  • Historian Nancy Bristow has argued that the 1918 flu pandemic contributed to the success of women in the field of nursing.
    • Due in part to the failure of medical doctors, who were predominantly men, to contain and prevent the illness
    • Nursing staff felt more inclined to celebrate the success of their patient care and less inclined to identify the spread of the disease with their own work
  • During the Great Depression, federal relief agencies funded many large-scale public health programs in every state, some of which became permanent
    • The programs expanded job opportunities for nurses, especially the private duty RNs who suffered high unemployment rates
  • Jumping ahead to 1952, the introduction of sedatives transformed mental health nursing
  • The first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was established in 1960
  • In recent decades, professionalization has moved nursing degrees out of RN-oriented hospital schools and into community colleges and universities. Specialization has brought numerous journals to broaden the knowledge base of the profession
  • In the 19th and 20th centuries, nursing was considered a women’s profession, just as doctoring was a men’s profession. With increasing expectations of workplace equality during the late 20th century, nursing became an officially gender-neutral profession
    • The percentage of male nurses remains well below that of female physicians to this day
    • The male-to-female ratio of nurses is about 1:19 in North America
    • There are a number of countries in Africa where male nurses outnumber female nurses
    • Some European countries report about 20% male nurses
    • Since 1980, the number of male nurses has doubled
    • In the US, while female nurses are more common, male nurses receive more pay on average
  • Florence Nightingale
    • Born on May 12, 1820. Died on August 13, 1910
    • British social reformer, a pioneer of the graphical presentation of statistical data, and the founder of modern nursing
    • Often referred to as “The Lady With the Lamp” due to making rounds of wounded soldiers at night
      • The nickname came from a phrase in a report in The Times: “She is “ministering angel” without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.”
      • It was further popularized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1857 poem “Santa Filomena”: Lo! In that house of misery/ A lady with a lamp I see/ Pass through the glimmering gloom,/ And flit from room to room
    • According to Stephen Page in the Dictionary of National Biography, Nightingale’s work in the Crimean War reduced the death rate among wounded soldiers from 42% to 2%, in large part due to her strict use of hand-washing and hygiene practices
      • Though some commentators have speculated that her achievements were exaggerated by media at the time, critics agree on the importance of her later work in professionalising nursing roles for women
      • During her first winter at Scutari during the war, 4,077 soldiers died there. 10 times more died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery than from battle wounds. 
        • With overcrowding, defective sewers, and lack of ventilation, Nightingale called the Sanitary Commission from the British government. The commission flushed out the sewers and improved ventilation, resulting in a sharp reduction in death rates
      • After her return to Britain, she collected evidence that most of the soldiers in hospital were killed by poor living conditions, and thus she advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. Consequently, she reduced peacetime deaths in the army and turned her attention to the sanitary design of hospitals and the introduction of sanitation in working-class homes
    • Her social reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce
    • With the use of infographics, she was a pioneer in data visualization, effectively using graphical visualization of statistical data
    • In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London
      • It was the first secular nursing school in the world, and is now part of King’s College London
    • The Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing was the first nursing school in the US based on Nightingale’s principles, opening originally under the name the Training School for Nurses in 1873
      • It was here that Nightingale trained America’s first nurse, Linda Richards, before Richards traveled to London to train under Nightingale at her School of Nursing
    • Nightingale’s parents named their children after the towns they were born in. Florence from Florence, Tuscany, and her sister was Frances Parthenope, after a Greek settlement now part of the city of Naples
    • Her parents objected to nursing, since it was, at the time, considered a profession for the lower classes and was linked to prostitution
    • Though she had many suitors propose marriage, she was convinced that marriage would interfere with her ability to follow her calling to nursing
    • She wasn’t exactly a feminist though. She was of the opinion that women craved sympathy and were not as capable as men. She criticized early women’s rights activists for decrying an alleged lack of careers for women at the same time that lucrative medical positions, under the supervision of NIghtingale and others, went perpetually unfilled
      • She preferred the friendship of powerful men, insisting they had done more than women to help her attain her goals, writing, “I have never found one woman who has altered her life by one iota for me or my opinions.”
      • Regardless, her work and life did contribute significantly to the women’s movement 
    • She was fluent in English, French, German, and Italian, and was knowledgeable in Latin and Ancient Greek
    • She owned a stuffed owl. Initially, NIghtingale had rescued the owl from a group of Greek youth who were tormenting the hatchling, who had found the owl after it fell from its nest at the Parthenon. Nightingale fed and trained the owl, giving it the name Athena after the Greek goddess. It would perch on her finger at feeding times, and afterwards bow and curtsy on a nearby object
      • The owl traveled with her, tucked into her pocket. It would also peck intrusive human visitors
      • When Nightingale left for her Crimea war nursing duties, Nightingale placed the owl in her attic thinking that she would be safe while providing her a means for food while ridding the space of mice. Unfortunately, the owl was forgotten and then found dead due to her inability to function without her mistress
      • Florence then delayed her departure and arranged for the services of a taxidermist
      • The mounted Athena then remained at the family residence until Nightingale’s own death. After trading hands for a period of time, the owl is now permanently at St. Thomas Hospital, the location of the Florence Nightingale museum
    • In recognition of her pioneering work in nursing, The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses, and the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve, were named in her honor. 
      • The latter was instituted by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1912, and is awarded to nurses or nursing aides for “exceptional courage and devotion to the wounded, sick or disabled or to civilian victims of a conflict or disaster” or “exemplary services or a creative and pioneering spirit in the areas of public health or nursing education.”
    • The Nightingale Pledge is a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath created in 1893 by Lystra Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School for Nurses in Detroit. It is a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession in the US, and is recited at pinning ceremonies by graduating nurses.
      • The original pledge is “I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practise my profession faithfully. I shall abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and shall not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I shall 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. I shall be loyal to my work and devoted towards the welfare of those committed to my care.”
      • It was revised in 1935, and the newer version rephrases it slightly, and trades out the shalls for wills.

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  • Fun facts, anecdotes, statistics
    • From WHO, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, National Today
    • Nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the US, with more than 3.8 million RNs (as of April 2019). Of all licensed RNs, 84.5% are employed in nursing
    • The federal government projects that more than 200K new RN positions will be created each year from 2016-2026
    • Nurses are more likely to sustain a back injury on a shift than construction workers
    • They walk an average of 5K per shift
    • RNs not only comprise the largest component of the healthcare workforce, they are also one of the large segments of the US workforce as a whole and are among the highest paying large occupations. Nearly 58% of RNs worked in general medical and surgical hospitals, where RN salaries averaged $73K according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
      • The worst paying states are South Dakota, Mississippi, and Alabama, paying an average of about $60K, and the best paying states are DC, Hawaii, and California, paying a collective average of about $100K, with California averaging the best at $113K
      • Washington comes in at #9 and pays an average of $86K.  Colorado is #16 and pays an average of $76K
    • Nurses are repeatedly ranked the most trusted profession, with polls consistently showing that more than 80% of Americans think nurses have “high” or “very high” ethical standards
    • Globally, 70% of the health and social workforce are women. Nurses and midwives represent a large portion of this number
    • Midwifery, where care includes proven interventions for maternal and newborn health as well as for family planning could avert over 80% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths. 
      • Midwife-led continuity of care, where a known midwife or group of midwives provides care from pregnancy to the end of the postnatal period, can prevent 24% of pre-term births
    • Employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 12% from 2018 to 2028, with a projected employment change of 371,500 jobs, much faster than the average for all occupations. Growth in the RN workforce will occur for a number of reasons, including an increased emphasis on preventive care; growing rates of chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity; and demand for more healthcare services from the baby-boom population, as they live longer and more active lives
    • However, the number of new graduates and foreign-trained nurses is insufficient to meet the demand for registered nurses. This nursing shortage is expected to increase for the foreseeable future
      • Some data support the idea that the nursing shortage is a voluntary one – that is to say that nurses are leaving the profession of their own volition
      • The International Council of Nursing recognizes the shortage of nurses as a growing world crisis
        • One reason may be that some nurses who pursue the profession do so late in their lives, leading to a non-lengthy employment duration
        • A national survey by the Federation of Nurses and Health professionals in 2001 found that 1 in 5 nurses plan to leave the profession within 5 years due to unsatisfactory working conditions, including low pay, severe understaffing, high stress, physical demands, mandatory overtime, and irregular hours
      • Furthermore, there is a shortage of academically qualified instructors to teach at schools of nursing worldwide. The serious need for educational capacity is not being met, which is the underlying most important preparation resource for future nurses
    • For some levity, i included some stories from nurses about peculiar interactions that they’ve had with patients from sheknows.com, and some stories from nurses on their own experiences on the job from businessinsider.com, nurse.org, rd.com
      • “The doctor prescribed a patient estrogen patches and told her to stick one patch on herself every other day. At the next follow-up she said she didn’t like the patches because she’d been “running out of space.” I didn’t think to clarify to her that she should have been placing a new patch and removing the one from yesterday each day. Very amusing. She indeed was covered in sticky patches.”
      • “I had a young woman pick up her Nuvaring (a ring inserted vaginally for birth control). She came back in a month to pick up a new one and was wearing her Nuvaring around her wrist as a bracelet.”
      • “Some poor woman thought she would have to stick needles in her nipples every time she breastfed her baby. She had no idea the ducts open naturally.”
      • “I had a patient who listed oxygen as an allergy.”
      • “I had to explain to a patient that despite the name an analgesic, (a painkiller) has nothing to do with anal and you are supposed to take it by mouth. This was after she’d finished one prescription.”
      • “One of the patients was complaining the cat allergy medicine we gave her wasn’t working (formulated in an inhaler). Turns out she was spraying the inhaler on her cat. We had to explain to her that she needs to inhale it.”
      • “A man got a vibrator stuck in his butt [and] didn’t learn his lesson the first time. He tried to fish it out with tongs. Then he had two things stuck in his butt.”
      • From a nurse who worked during Hurricane Katrina: “I was born in New Orleans and have always lived here. I am probably the oldest nurse around here.” “[When] Hurricane Katrina hit, [she was] mean. Dealing with Katrina was like dealing with the death of a city. Some things die and never come back. What I remember most about being in the hospital during Katrina was that not one nurse would leave until each and every patient had been evacuated. The patients in the ICU on the twelfth floor were carried down on spine boards in the hot, dark, slippery stairwells, and everyone did a hero’s job of it. There was no panic, no one screaming to get out or anything like that. It was amazing.”
      • From a nurse in Florida: “As a nurse I always fix things, that’s what I was trained to do, to help people and fix them. As a hospice nurse, I realized that I can still fix things, and how I fix them is I make them better for a person to transition from this life into their next life in a smooth, comfortable way. I can fix it so that they’re not in pain, I can fix it so they’re not vomiting 24 hours a day. I can fix it that they can even take a spoon full of ice cream and say ‘Oh god, that’s delicious,’ because it might be their last spoonful of ice cream.” “I can fix it that if their daughter who lives in New Jersey can’t be here, I can transfer that phone call and sit with that patient and hold the phone for her, because she doesn’t have the strength to hold the phone to her ear, and say ‘Your daughter Mary is on the phone, she wants to tell you she loves you,’ and encourage [the patient] to have the strength to say ‘Hi Mary,’ so that her daughter feels that at least she got to hear her mother’s voice.”
      • From a nurse in Maryland: “I am an assistant professor in the Acute Chronic Care Department in the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University. I believe that a nurse is not just there to administer to patients; we also serve as role models. Nursing has always been an occupation that’s highly trusted by the public, and I take that trust to heart. I always want to be a good role model and provide the very best of myself and the best care.” 
        • “I hear two prevailing reasons why [my students] come to nursing: one is that they are looking for a recession-proof profession, and the other is that they once helped care for a loved one who was sick.”
      • “One of our 18-year-old oncology patients was hoping to spend Valentine’s Day with his girlfriend at home, but unfortunately, discharge from our unit was nowhere in sight due to complications with his stem cell transplant.He wasn’t discouraged for long, though. The night before Valentine’s Day, a nurse on our unit excitedly offered to help him plan an elaborate surprise dinner for his girlfriend. Getting off of a 12+ hour shift and scheduled to work the next day, she scoured the shelves of nearby stores around town to buy the perfect supplies for an amazing hospital date.On Valentines Day, our nurses went above and beyond with red and pink heart decorations, a customized playlist, and a romantically-set table for two. We were able to transform our unit playroom into a magical space for these two young people.”
      • “There are often moments when blood counts bottom out, patients lose their appetite, they lose their strength, and they can no longer muster up the energy to fight…but there is always a way.After days of a patient lying in bed, refusing to move or walk, my coworker had an idea that only a pediatric nurse is capable of imagining. She decided this patient would not do what seemed like work, but might do what seemed like play.After arming him with an awesome Nerf gun (courtesy of Child Life) and taping a huge bullseye target on her back, she taunted him to hit the target. As he shot, she stepped away…and then stepped further. Before he knew it, he was chasing her through our hallways at full speed, color rushing back into his pale face and a smile spreading ear to ear. Oddly enough, daily walks were never an issue again for this particular patient.”
      • “I think people assume working on a pediatric unit is a lot of dressing up, silliness and play. Well, to be perfectly honest, it is. How lucky are we to have such a job?One of our dearest cancer patients had been on our unit for well over 6 months and we couldn’t blame him for feeling down every now and then. So on Halloween night, our nurses each picked a magical Disney princess character and committed to elaborate costumes, even covering our badge photos with princess stickers for the night.As his nurses, Rapunzel, Anna, Elsa, Belle, Jasmine, and Snow White entered his room, a look of surprise swept his face. His open mouth slowly crept into a shy smile as he asked us all about our fantastical castles and whimsical stories. We’d be lying to ourselves if we said we didn’t enjoy it every bit as much as he did.”
      • As a nurse at MetroWest Cancer Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, Karen Mott tried hard to get one patient to open up. But Patricia McNulty usually tried to avoid conversation—unless it was about her nine-year-old son, Stephen. After McNulty went to hospice when her cancer took a bad turn, Mott wondered what would happen to Stephen. He couldn’t live with his father, who had permanent brain damage from a car accident, or any of his mother’s five siblings. McNulty didn’t want him in foster care. So after Stephen’s mother passed away, Mott and her husband, who have three other older children, brought him into their own family and adopted him.
      • A major blizzard in January 2016 kept most New Yorkers safely in their homes, but one woman braved the elements. Knowing her Hebrew Home patients might need her, nurse Chantelle Diabate walked about two miles in the snow to get to the Bronx nursing home. She was the only nurse to report there that day, so she and other staff members worked double shifts to cover. “My job is really humbling because you realize you could be a patient…at some point you’re going to have to depend on somebody,” she told ABC News. “We all need each other. I treat my patients well because I treat them like family.”
  • For COVID-19 specifically
  • History/Fun facts about the holiday
    • From nursingworld.org: the American Nurses Association or ANA has been supporting and promoting the nursing profession since 1896. The Association has various state and territorial nurses associations that promote the profession at state and regional levels. Each association conducts celebrations on these dates to recognize the contributions that nurses and nursing make to the community
    • Nursingworld.org  offers a history of National Nurses Week
      • In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a “Nurse Day” in October of the following year. The proclamation was never made
      • In 1954, National Nurse Week was observed from October 11-16. The year of the observance marked the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. Representative Frances P. Bolton sponsored the bill for a nurse week. 
        • A bill for a National Nurse Week was introduced in the 1955 Congress, but no action was taken. Congress discontinued its practice of join resolutions for national weeks of various kinds
      • In 1972, yet another resolution was presented by the House of Representatives for the President (then Nixon) to proclaim “National Registered Nurse Day”. Yet again, it did not occur
      • In January of 1974, the International Council of Nurses proclaimed that May 12 would be International Nurse Day, which the Council had already been celebrating on that date since 1965
      • In February of 1974, a week was designated by the White House as National Nurse Week, and President Nixon issued a proclamation
      • In 1978, New Jersey Governor Brendon Byrne declared May 6 as “Nurses Day.” Edward Scanlan, of Red Bank, NJ, took up the cause to perpetuate the recognition of nurses in his state. Scanlan had this date listed in Chase’s Calendar of Events
      • In 1981, the ANA and other organizations rallied to support a resolution initiated by nurses in New Mexico to have May 6, 1982, established as “National Recognition Day for Nurses”
      • In February of 1982, the ANA Board of Directors formally acknowledged May 6, 1982 as National Nurses Day. The action affirmed a joint resolution of the US Congress designating May 6 as National Recognition Day for Nurses
      • On March 25th of that year,  President Reagan signed a proclamation proclaiming “National Recognition Day for Nurses” to be May 6, 1982
      • In 1990, the ANA Board expanded the recognition of nurses to a week-long celebration, declaring May 6-12, 1991, as National Nurses Week
      • Finally, in 1993, the ANA Board designated May 6-12 as permanent dates to observe the week, starting in 1994 and all subsequent years
      • In 1996, the ANA initiated “National RN Recognition Day” on May 6 to honor the nation’s indispensable registered nurses for their tireless commitment 365 days a year. The ANA continues to encourage its state and territorial associations and other organizations to acknowledge May 6 at “National RN Recognition Day.”
      • In 1997, “National Student Nurses Day” was designated by the ANA as May 8th at the request of the National Student Nurses Association. The NSNA has independently recognized May 8th since 1972
      • National School Nurse Day was added in 2003, and falls on the Wednesday within the week. This year it falls on the 6th
    • According to speakersfornurses.com, the theme for this year’s National Nurses Week is Compassion | Expertise | Trust
    • A few other keys dates around this timeline, outside the scope of National Nurses Week, include:
      • April 7, which was World Health Day
      • April 24-30 was World Immunization Week
      • May 5th is Hand Hygiene Day, as well as the International Day of the Midwife
      • May 17-22 is the World Health Assembly
    • Later in the year, we also have:
      • World Patient Safety Day falls on September 17th
      • October 26-28 is the Nightingale 2020 Conference, set to take place in London, and will address nursing impact, world health, professionalism, and digital health
      • Universal Health Coverage Day is December 12
    • The World Health Assembly designated 2020 is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.  This year is also the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale
      • Due to this declaration, the ANA has expanded its National Nurses Week to last the entire month of May
      • The WHO press release for the Year of the Nurse and Midwife states that nurses “are often, the first and only point of care in their communities. The world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030”
      • The goal of the designation is a “year-long effort to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives, highlight the challenging conditions they often face, and advocate for increased investments in the nursing and midwifery workforce”
      • The WHO goes on to state that the world needs 18 million more health workers to achieve and sustain universal health coverage by 2030, and about half that – that 9 million – are nurses and midwives. The most acute shortages are in SE Asia and Africa
    • Each year, the International Council of Nurses also designates a theme to observe for International Nurses Day
      • In 2016, it was Nurses: a Force for Change: Improving Health Systems Resilience
      • In 2017, it was Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
      • 2018: Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Health is a Human Right
      • 2019: Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Health for All
      • And this year’s theme is Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Nursing the World to Health
        • This theme is intended to demonstrate how nurses are central to addressing a wide range of health challenges, encouraging nurses and the public to celebrate the day, but also provide information and resources that will help to raise the profile of the profession throughout the year and attract a new generation into the nursing family
        • The theme was announced on October 24, 2019
        • At the time of the announcement, ICN president Annette Kennedy said that she is expecting 2020 to be a momentous year for the profession, stating, “Having the Year of the Nurse and Midwife coincide with Florence Nightingale’s bicentennial raises the exciting prospect of nurses finally being recognised for all the good they do. 
          • “All around the world, nurses are working tirelessly to provide the care and attention people need, whenever and wherever they need it.
          • “We want [2020’s] International Nurses Day to highlight that nurses are central to the delivery of health care, that nurses are making invaluable contribution to the health of people globally. Nurses, because of their unique role of working with people from birth to death, need to be involved in health policy.”
      • On April 7th, World Health Day, we saw the publication of the first WHO State of the World’s Nursing Report, which seeks to provide a detailed snapshot of the nursing workforce globally, as well as the Nursing Now Campaign’s Nightingale Challenge, which will produce a new cohort of young nurse leaders who will take the profession forward over the next decade

Activities to celebrate

  • Use hashtag #NationalNursesWeek on social media, as well as various iterations of each of the recognized days
    • The ICN encourages the #IND2020 and #Nurses2020 hashtags
    • The ANA encourages us to use #YearOfTheNurse or #YON2020
  • You can find the ICN’s International Nurses Day 2020 logos and posters here: https://www.icn.ch/what-we-docampaigns/international-nurses-day and https://www.icn.ch/sites/default/files/inline-files/Posters%20A2_ENG.pdf
  • You can download the WHO’s 2020 toolkit here https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/documents/yonm-2020/campaign-toolkit.pdf
    • It includes some fast facts and statistics about nursing and midwifery, as well as 9 things to do to build up health worker momentum through 2020
      • Organize recognition awards/certificates for midwives and nurses in your local and national healthcare facilities. Share your photos on social media with #SupportNursesAndMidwives
      • Set up or take part in public events with active participation of nurses, midwives, patients, national health leaders, and health sector partners. You could use an event to recognize and appreciate nurses and midwives encouraging them to tell their own stories
        • If you are inviting media, involve them well in advance to secure their interest and support; provide them with information and impactful testimonials
      • Display the campaign posters at strategic locations, such as supermarkets, bus stops, schools, local health facilities, a health ministry.
        • Or from every window of your home, since that’s the only place you should really be going right now
      • Engage local leaders and celebrities by asking them to promote the Year (or the Week) in speeches, on social media, websites, television and radio interviews
      • Work through the media to get coverage for your activities in order to get the message to mass public audiences and get the attention of policy-makers and politicians
        • Pitch opinion pieces which can stimulate debate and keep issues in the media
        • Ask a prominent writer, celebrity, or even health worker to write a piece explaining the current situation in your country
        • Organize TV and/or radio spots promoting nurses at key moments
        • Arrange a media round table inviting the media and other partners to ask questions and start to build a dialogue with the political targets
      • Approach artists to create artwork for health workers. Likewise encourage theater groups to produce plays or other performance pieces based on health workers
      • Build and strengthen partnerships by working with organizations that share your goals and form coalitions so that there are more voices behind the celebration
        • Engage with healthcare organizations and local healthcare advocates and community leaders in your efforts
      • Get active on social media. You can share photos and video testimonials from healthcare workers, influencers, and advocates explaining why this vital workforce is essential and why we need greater investment in the health workforce
      • They also included a tip about organizing a walk, but I don’t think that’s such a great idea right now
  • Listen to this recording of the voice of Florence Nightingale, which was originally recorded on the Edison paraffin wax cylinder on July 30th, 1890, when she would have been 70 years old
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax3B4gRQNU4
    • Transcript: When I am no longer even a memory – just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore.
  • National Today recommends that you can celebrate by: thanking the nurses in your life; giving the gift of caffeine; and learn about the woman “responsible for it all”, Florence Nightingale
    • If you’re a nurse, National Today advises to “give yourself a pat on the back and bask in the knowledge that the rest of the country is thinking of you today. You’re doing an incredible job!”
  • NATIONAL NURSES WEEK Mixtape
    • Nurse and Protect by Ludwig Goransson
    • Nurse Ratched by Cherry Glazerr
    • Nurse’s Office by Melanie Martinez
    • Take Care by Beach House
    • Medicine by The 1975
    • Modern Chemistry by Motion City Soundtrack
    • How to Save a Life by The Fray
    • The Nurse by The White Stripes
    • Bandages by Hot Hot Heat
    • I Wanna Be Sedated by Ramones
    • Underappreciated by Christina Aguilera
    • You’re My Remedy by The Marvelettes
    • She Works Hard For The Money by Donna Summer
    • Thank You by Kehlani
    • Thank You by Dido
    • Nurse by Bush
    • Thank You for Loving Me by Bon Jovi

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Playlist

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Sources

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