As I write this today, we are marching through National Nurse’s Week. This week there have been lots of fun things at work-free food, free gifts, bowling, and other things to do. It’s a chance for we nurses to be recognized and remembered for what we do for others.

Nurse’s week started in the 1950’s but was originally begun as a one-day celebration of recognition. Later, the ANA adopted the week of May 6 - 12 as Nurse’s Week, and it is permanently celebrated on these dates.

Nurse’s week is more than just a time to get free food and gifts, though. I find it to be a good time of retrospection. It feels like an affirmation of sisterhood (or brotherhood!). To me, having time where we are recognizably appreciated by management and media helps shine a light on our profession, and hopefully shows others that as nurses we are hard-working professionals within our profession.

If you are a nurse or soon to be a nurse, take some time to reflect this week on your reasons for going into the field. Use this time as a chance to reconnect with your initial feelings about nursing and to remember why you chose to become a member of this challenging, busy, tiring, fulfilling and awesome profession. Take a few minutes to relax and reflect; you deserve it!

For a great gift for a special nurse or for yourself, click here.

Nurses week is May 6th-12th.

A Brief History

Although proposals had been sent to President Eisenhower in 1953, and submitted to the US Congress in 1955, it was January of 1974 when the International Council of Nurses proclaimed that May 12th, Florence Nightingale’s Birthday, would be “International Nurse Day.”

In February of 1974, the White House designated that there would be a National Nurse Week and President Nixon signed a proclamation.

In 1978, New Jersey Governor Brendon Byrne declared May 6th as “Nurses Day” and New Jersey resident Edward Scanlon took up the cause to perpetuate the recognition of nurses in his state.

There were other triumphs along the way, and in 1982 the ANA Board of Directors formally acknowledged May 6th 1982 as National Nurses Day. This action affirmed a joint resolution of the US Congress that designated May 6th as “National Recognition Day for Nurses.”

President Reagan signed that proclamation.In 1991 The ANA Board of Directors chose to expand the recognition of nurses to a week-long celebration. In 1993 they designated May 6th-12 as the permanent dates that National Nurses Week would be observed each year.

May 6th - National RN Recognition Day
May 8th - National Student Nurses Day

Click here for exclusive Nurses Week 2008 gifts.