National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th. It coincides with Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12). Since 1896, the nursing profession has been supported by the American Nurses Association.
Heroes
Our nurses are heroes. They are the backbone of our American Health Care system taking care of patients of all ages. Nurses perform difficult tasks such as delivering babies, caring for the elderly, assisting in operating rooms, working in the intensive care and neonatal units, or serve in an executive or administrative capacity. In addition to working inside hospitals, nursing homes, and acute facilities, nurses are employed by school districts to safeguard students.
Skilled
They are highly skilled trained professionals who work endless hours without a single complaint.
Continuing Medical Education
When it comes to continuing their medical education, nurses can take mobile courses (Jointly accredited by ANCC, ACCME, and ACPE) so they do not interrupt their work schedules. They are able to fulfill their state licensing renewal requirements with convenient self-paced courses.
Technology
As more and more nurses begin to experience burnout, this is beginning to show a shortage in frontline nurses across the board. This is not the result of the Covid pandemic but from years of poor systems within our hospitals. Nurses are forced to perform clerical duties, clean bedpans, and other services which do not fall within the scope of their profession.
More hospitals will have to focus on streamlining and automating the workflow while developing a stronger line of communication. Health IT strategies can help align patients, beds, and staff to optimize productivity. Failure of hospitals to execute intelligent IT solutions will further deteriorate our health care system. With the shortage of nurses, we are seeing mass burnout and staff turnover.
Conclusion
If we are to keep our nurses happy, then institutions need to start listening and developing systems to ease the stress they feel every day. To all our nurses, wherever you are, we salute you during National Nurse’s week and every day you are on the job!
