National Nurses Week honors nurses

The men and women who helped treat patients are being recognized this week for their dedication.

National Nurses Week is celebrated during the second week of May. It is a time to salute the millions of men and women who serve tens of millions of patients at schools, companies, clinics and the military, among many places.

Here are a few ways to celebrate National Nurses Week:

Community Events

• Invite a politician — local, state or federal — to accompany one or more nurses while on the job. Health care remains an important issue to voters. Politicians should be visible and accountable for their positions on health care. This offers good media coverage potential.

• Arrange a “town hall” meeting on nurses’ concerns, such as adequate staffing and quality of care.

• Request a proclamation from your mayor declaring May6National RN Recognition Day or May 6-12 as National Nurses Week.

• Hold a special celebration or reception to recognize one or more nurses in your community for heroic acts, years of service to the community, exemplary courage or commitment to the profession.

• Promote a positive, realistic image of RNs by sponsoring health fairs, conducting preventive screenings in underserved areas or organizing a walka-thon.

• Sponsor a communitywide event, such as a coloring or poem-writing contest for students. The children could acknowledge their favorite nurse, a famous nurse, or family member who is a nurse. The drawings or poems could be displayed in local schools, hospitals and nursing homes.

• Invite a local celebrity who has spoken about health care, either as a patient or as a family member who has been a patient, and request sponsorship of National RN Recognition Day and/or National Nurses Week. Hold an event and ask the celebrity to speak about a personal experience involving a nurse.

• Host a fund-raiser, such as a walk-a-thon, and donate money to a local charity. Emphasize the importance of RNs in the nation’s health care system; pay tribute to a local nurse; or recognize all RNs who provide care all day, yearround.

• Organize a candlelight vigil on National RN Recognition Day in honor of the hard work and commitment of the 3.1 million RNs in America.

• Obtain support from other nursing and health care organizations in your area by asking them to sponsor National RN Recognition Day and/or National Nurses Week and to hold a joint event with your

organization.

Media Outreach

• Write and distribute a press release announcing National RN Recognition Day or National Nurses Week.

• Place an article in your state or local newspaper or a community blog about National Nurses Week and the contributions of nurses. Host a press conference. Discuss an important health care issue in your community; honor a registered nurse for a heroic act; or bestow an “honorary” nurse title to a deserving politician or civic leader.

• Host an editorial board meeting with leading state or local newspapers. Discuss the importance of RNs at the bedside and the nursing profession’s concerns about current issues, specifically those related to quality of care and health care innovation.

• Suggest that your state or local newspaper solicit stories from readers who would like to pay tribute to a nurse who provided exemplary care.

Nurse cares for an elderly woman in a nursing home.

National Nurses Week highlights the dedication of nurses.