Holzer Celebrates National Nurses Week May 6-12

This year’s theme, “Nurses: Inspire, Innovate, Influence,” recognizes the depth and breadth of the registered nursing profession as it meets the different and emerging health care needs of the American population in a wide range of settings.

Holzer has annually joined with the American Nurses’ Association to recognize May 6-12 as National Nurses Week, an opportunity for communities to recognize the full range of nurses’ contributions to healthcare.

This year’s theme, “Nurses: Inspire, Innovate, Influence,” recognizes the depth and breadth of the registered nursing profession as it meets the different and emerging health care needs of the American population in a wide range of settings. This week provides an opportunity to celebrate the ways in which nurses advocate for high-quality patient care and map out the way to improve health care systems.

In the United States, registered nurses constitute our nation’s largest health care profession. The American Nurses Association, as the voice for registered nurses in this country, is working to chart a new course for a healthy nation that relies on increasing delivery of primary and preventive health care. The demand for registered nursing services in the future will be greater than ever because of the aging of the American population, the continuing expansion of life-sustaining technologies, and the explosive growth of home health care services.

Beginning with National Nurses Day on May 6, nurses are recognized for the integral part they play in the delivery of quality healthcare. Nurses practice in diverse roles, such as clinicians, administrators, researchers, educators and policymakers. 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.

National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday. These permanent dates enhance planning and position National Nurses Week as an established recognition event. As of 1998, May 8 was designated National Student Nurses Day, to be celebrated annually, and as of 2003, National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday within National Nurses Week. The nursing profession has been supported and promoted by the American Nurses Association (ANA) since 1896.

Florence Nightingale Pledge:

Composed in 1893 by Mrs. Lystra E. Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School for Nurses in Detroit, MI. It was entitled the Florence Nightingale Pledge as a token of esteem for the founder of modern nursing.

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.