Nurses, we salute you
In Florence Nightingale’s day, a rampant outbreak of cholera raised awareness of how important sanitation was to human health.
In the 1850s, given the poor conditions at a hospital in Middlesex, England, the disease spread rapidly.
As History.com tells us, “Nightingale made it her mission to improve hygiene practices, significantly lowering the death rate at the hospital in the process.”
How proud she would be of today’s nurses, and how fitting that they are celebrated during National Nursing Week, which includes Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12.
This year’s theme is #Weanswerthecall — profoundly appropriate during these unprecedented times, with parts of Canada grappling with a third wave of COVID-19.
Nursing is tough, demanding work, both physically and mentally.
Nurses are the indispensable troops on the front lines, bravely striding into the thick of things, often risking their own health to care for the rest of us.
We owe them gratitude and respect.
At the best of times, even pre-pandemic, nurses’ work was understood to be immensely valuable. Whether they are hooking up IVS, helping a patient walk after surgery, tending to wounds or reassuring worried loved ones, they go above and beyond every single day with help, comfort and compassion.
In an article written for Saltwire Network to mark National Nursing Week in Atlantic Canada, Jules Lawrence, a pediatric nurse in Halifax, told freelancer Colin Hodd that public perceptions about what nursing is have changed, in part because of their essential work during the pandemic.
“I think there was a culture at one point, where nurses were little candy-cart pushers who gave out maybe a med or two and gave you a little bed-bath when you were feeling sick,” Lawrence said.
“Now, we’re seeing more of that respect happening to the nursing profession. It’s no longer this really dainty, female-led profession; it’s like a badass, female-led profession, with some amazing male nurses and non-binary nurses as well.”
Badass, for sure. Nursing is not for the faint of heart. The hours are long and tiring, the work can be draining, and yet we’ve all seen nurses going about their tasks with great efficiency and empathy.
This week, May 10-16, why not take a moment to let a nurse know how they made a difference in your life or the life of someone you love?
The Canadian Nurses Association suggests using the hashtag #Iknowanurse in social media posts to share stories of exceptional nurses.
Much has changed since Florence Nightingale’s day, but some things about nursing are constant. Just as Nightingale mustered a team of nurses to travel to Crimea in 1854 to tend injured British soldiers, nurses from this region have travelled to COVID-19 hot spots in Canada — willing to help wherever they are needed.
#Weanswerthecall. Indeed.