Nurses Week 2023

Nurses week is celebrated each year on May 6 - May 12 regardless of the days of the week these dates fall. The full week of recognition wraps up on Florence Nightingale’s birthday which is May 12^th. This year we celebrate the 4.2 million nurses in the US. We have the cream of the crop here at Kirby and I’m so grateful for our wonderful nurses.

40 years ago this month, I graduated from St. John’s School of Nursing in Springfield, IL. Healthcare has drastically changed in these 40 years and so has nursing. Some will say nursing is about helping people and yet it is so very much more! The 2023 Nurses week theme is “Nurses Make a Difference: Anytime, Anywhere – Always”. Wow! This statement couldn’t be more true. Nurses are the unwavering constant in the ever-changing healthcare environment. We are a strong, flexible, and agile bunch, which helps us to persevere when times get tough, while allowing us to survive.

Nursing encompasses so many paths and delivers so many opportunities. It’s about observing, listening, learning, and doing what needs to be done to improve whatever the situation at hand may be. It’s about doing the right thing for our patients. It’s about seeing and doing the unimaginable at times. It’s about giving of yourself while caring for others in the oddest of circumstances.

Nursing is a difficult job which is both gentle and fierce, not always glamorous, yet so rewarding! And as the Nightingale Pledge states, “I devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.”

Please join me in celebrating over 100 nurses and nursing support staff here at Kirby Medical Center!