We’d like to congratulate and salute the thousands of nurses across the United States who make a difference every day in the lives of those they care for.  Today, National Nurses Day, signifies the start of National Nurses Week, which ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. This year’s theme, “Nurses: Leading the Way”, captures the important role nurses have as leaders at the bedside, in the boardroom, throughout communities and in the halls of government.  

Increasingly, nurses with advanced degrees, such as nurse practitioners, are providing primary care services and managing chronic illnesses.  Nurses are leading initiatives to increase access to care and improve outcomes by focusing on primary care, prevention, wellness, chronic disease management and the coordination of care among health care providers and settings.  These are areas in which nurses excel given their education and experience.

Wherever health care is provided, a nurse is likely to be there — hospitals, ambulatory care centers, private practices, retail and urgent care clinics, nurse-managed health centers, homes, schools, nursing homes, and public and nonprofit agencies.  As the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, nurses will be more crucial than ever, leading efforts to expand primary care at community-based clinics and deliver more efficient and cost-effective care as members of collaborative health care teams.
It’s no wonder that the public holds nurses in high regard and trusts them to advocate for patients. For the past 12 years, nursing ranked as the top profession for honesty and ethics in an annual Gallup survey.

Please join Frida and me, and all of Barco’s Nightingale Foundation as we salute nurses and recognize their selflessness and important role in the medical profession.
~Michael Donner