Be nice to a nurse this month

Well, truth be told, I think you should be nice to a nurse every month, but maybe more so in May. In the United States, 2009’s National Nurses Week is from May  6 to 12 and in Canada, it’s from May 11 to 17.

Where I work as a clinical resource nurse, I had some good plans for the week, but they fell by the wayside because of pandemic preparation and a lot of other work. On the other hand, because I’m in Canada, I have an extra week to see if we can manage something. The goal is to recognize the difficult job that they do.

Why a national week?

Why is it important to honor nurses? Well, if you think about it, Administrative assistants get tons of attention during their week, and teachers the same for Teacher Appreciation. But nurses? Most people don’t even seem to know that their is a Nurses Appreciation Day, let alone a week.

I wrote about what nurses do over on my own blog, Marijke: Nurse Turned Writer . I wrote about what nurses really do and why they should never be considered to be lower than doctors. Nurses may not have the same training as doctors do, while we can’t do their job, they very likely can’t do ours. Why? Nurses have a completely different approach to health and patient care.

My post there starts like this:

Reactions to nurses range from “only an idiot would choose to be a nurse” to “only very special people can be nurses.” Well, I’ll tell you – I’ve met some people I would say are idiots and I wonder how they get their nursing license and I’ve met some nurses who truly qualify as someone very special. But, for the most part, nurses are like everyone else. We’re people, we have our good days and our bad days. We do our best but we make mistakes. We laugh, we cry, we stress and we relax – we’re people with a serious job and we hold lives in our hands.

So, if you know a nurse, if you have to be in a healthcare institution either as a patient, family member or visitor, remember that there are many people who make that place run, from the housekeeping staff to the executive director. And, don’t forget that the nurses are the ones who are your advocates, who work directly with you all the time. People don’t have to buy gifts or make a big deal over things, but a quiet thank you, a note of appreciation to a superior, a smile – they’re all things that make a huge difference in the life of a nurse.

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Images: Newscom.com and Stock.xchnge