Each May, the contributions nurses make to society are celebrated on the week of May 12th.
Why May 12th? Because this was the birthdate of Florence Nightingale, the English social reformer and statistician who is widely credited as the founder of the nursing profession; in her honour, May 12th is recognized by the United Nations as International Nursing Day.
Across Canada, employers, nursing associations, unions and nursing schools are making plans for events to honour the nursing profession. The Canadian Nurses Association theme, Nurses: With you every step of the way, emphasizes how important nurses are in our lives — at every age, in all health situations, for all Canadians.
At St. Joseph’s Home Care, celebrating Nurses’ Week is a long-standing tradition. Nursing has been at the heart of the services we have provided to our community since our inception in 1921 and continues to be a significant part of what our organization does today. Each year we take time to celebrate nurses with special events throughout Nurses’ Week in honour of Florence Nightingale, who founded the first professional nursing training school in 1860. We will continue this special observance in 2016 with the special events throughout this week of May 8-14.