What happened to Nurses Week?

Home Health Columnist / Guide · May 12, 2006

Join the club.

Upsets me that EVERY year VP nursing/ HR Director ask me when Nurses Week is then turned it into colleague day celebration....but they celebrate "Administrative Professional Day" and "Therapy Week" in our home care agency which is made up of 90% RN employees.

Staff clamored for "allnurses pens" this year per several reports--- one of the freebies given out courtesy of me being on the bb Mod Team.

Also asked for recipie for Breakfast sausage casserole that I made as part our AM celebration today---so nurses came out ahead.

:)

xokelly2 · May 12, 2006

My hospital had things planned all week......

a majority of which got canned when JACHO showed up......

What a way to ruin the celebration!!!!

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 12, 2006

Our hospital bites the bullet and makes a bit to do about Nurses Week and turns around the very next week and celebrates Hospital Week. It's the right thing to do and I would be upset too if I were you, it's cheap and a low blow to cancel nurses week just because Hospital Week is the very next week.

My hospital also celebrates all those other weeks. Obviously with nurses making up the overwhelming majority of staff we overshadow their celebrations because there's more of us, but no need for them to be haters because they have their day too.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · May 12, 2006

I am so mad I could spit!!! At the hospital where I work, this week which is "Nurse's Week", is called "National Hospital Week" & we no longer acknowledge nurses week, because it upset the other departments, they said that the nurses were being "spoiled" & favored, & that it just wasnt fair. Meanwhile, when it is "Dietary, Health Information, Lab, X-Ray", or any other damn week, we have signs posted all over the place! Am I the only one who feels that this is absolute crap???:angryfire

I know exactly what you mean.

We have STs that entered in the raffles and contests this year and won. It was supposed to be for nurses.

Supposedly this happened throughout the hospital.

And supposedly this won't be a problem next year.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 12, 2006

I was a tad miffed at this too, and then I read up on the history of each celebration. Here's what I found:

From http://www.nursingworld.org/pressrel/nnw/nnwhist.htm

Brief History of National Nurses Week

1953 Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a "Nurse Day" in October of the following year. The proclamation was never made.

1954 National Nurse Week was observed from October 11 - 16. The year of the observance marked the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's mission to Crimea. Representative Frances P. Bolton sponsored the bill for a nurse week. Apparently, a bill for a National Nurse Week was introduced in the 1955 Congress, but no action was taken. Congress discontinued its practice of joint resolutions for national weeks of various kinds.

1972 Again a resolution was presented by the House of Representatives for the President to proclaim "National Registered Nurse Day." It did not occur.

1974 In January of that year, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) proclaimed that May 12 would be "International Nurse Day." (May 12 is the birthday of Florence Nightingale.) Since 1965, the ICN has celebrated "International Nurse Day."

1974 In February of that year, a week was designated by the White House as National Nurse Week, and President Nixon issued a proclamation.

1978 New Jersey Governor Brendon Byrne declared May 6 as "Nurses Day." Edward Scanlan, of Red Bank, N.J., took up the cause to perpetuate the recognition of nurses in his state. Mr. Scanlan had this date listed in Chase's Calendar of Annual Events. He promoted the celebration on his own.

1981 ANA, along with various nursing organizations, rallied to support a resolution initiated by nurses in New Mexico, through their Congressman, Manuel Lujan, to have May 6, 1982, established as "National Recognition Day for Nurses."

1982 In February, the ANA Board of Directors formally acknowledged May 6, 1982 as "National Nurses Day." The action affirmed a joint resolution of the United States Congress designating May 6 as "National Recognition Day for Nurses."

1982 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation on March 25, proclaiming "National Recognition Day for Nurses" to be May 6, 1982.

1990 The ANA Board of Directors expanded the recognition of nurses to a week-long celebration, declaring May 6 - 12, 1991, as National Nurses Week.

1993 The ANA Board of Directors designated May 6 - 12 as permanent dates to observe National Nurses Week in 1994 and in all subsequent years.

1996 The ANA initiated "National RN Recognition Day" on May 6, 1996, to honor the nation's indispensable registered nurses for their tireless commitment 365 days a year. The ANA encourages its state and territorial nurses associations and other organizations to acknowledge May 6, 1996 as "National RN Recognition Day." 1997 The ANA Board of Directors, at the request of the National Student Nurses Association, designated May 8 as National Student Nurses Day.

and....

http://www.aha.org/aha/awards-events/awards/05nhw.html

The celebration of National Hospital Week began in 1921 when a magazine editor suggested that more information about hospitals might alleviate public fears about the "shrouded" institutions of the day. From that beginning, Hospital Week expanded to facilities across the nation.

romie · May 12, 2006

Sometimes I think people allow their egos to get bruised over these silly healthcare observances. Some people, no matter if you have a ticker parade and hire a marching band, will feel hurt and under appreciated. Other times, the administration could put tons and tons of effort and money into an observance and not have a single person make an effort to be around to be recognized--like they don't even care that people put effort into the observance. For example, at my SNF, we have been having these nice luncheons for the nurses everyday of the week and not a single nurse is coming to them. We will be celebrating National Nursing Home Week next week, so I dread the outcome of that. The other thing, when it comes to these healthcare observances, few people even care enough to put a little effort themselves to make a nice party or whatever. If you are a nurse and it is Nurses week, then you should go around and ask your colleges to pitch in a few bucks to buy yourselves lunch or fun shirts or Stethescope covers, ect. Or take it apon yourselves to go to administration (With actual ideas, and not to complain) and offer to help out! People just expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter and complain when it falls short of their expectation. Just like National Nursing Home Week-- it is the responsibility of EVERY department in the nursing home (dietary, nursing, housekeeping, ect.) but all of the work will fall on the Activity Department and then everyone will complain when it falls short of their expectations!

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 12, 2006

if you are a nurse and it is nurses week, then you should go around and ask your colleges to pitch in a few bucks to buy yourselves lunch or fun shirts or stethescope covers, ect. or take it apon yourselves to go to administration (with actual ideas, and not to complain) and offer to help out! people just expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter and complain when it falls short of their expectation.

ummm...excuse me, but nurses week is the time when everyone else takes the time to say "thank you" to the hardworking, underpaid, shortstaffed, underappreciated nurses.

it's not incumbent upon us to celebrate ourselves. we know we have a tough job.

the time to thank nurses is nurse's week because most days a nurse works, it's certainly not appropriate to do so.

it's an official thank-you from tptb and the public that is designed to increase nursing visibility and promote information to the public about who we are and what we do.

it's supposed to help make up for the missed breaks, missed holidays, forced overtime, aching backs, and tears that we've shed while doing our jobs. it's supposed to make up for all the patients who intended to write a note of thanks for us, but never got the chance. it's supposed to make up for all the sentinel events that were documented so well that it saved the facility from a lawsuit.

in short, we deserve this public appreciation. we've worked hard to get our licenses and keep our patients well and improve the quality of their lives.

we do it without many thank-you's. before there were hospitals, before there was a housekeeping department, a dietary department, or a physical therapy department, there were nurses.

nurses, i salute you!

gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP · May 12, 2006

Here in Dallas - they have a thing called "Great 100" as a way of recognizing some of the areas best nurses - they can be nominated by supervisors, peers, patients - whoever.

Anyway - it used to be bedside nurses for the most part - and generally still is. And most hospitals have a number of nominees. But how is it that the nurse administrator - who is - well - lets just say people will wonder who nominated him - the ONLY nurse recognized for one particular facility?

Hmmmmm...I WONDER how that happened?

tlcprn2u · May 12, 2006

Hi, Nurses across the nation! Happy Nurses' Week!

Send an e-card to your fellow nurses from www.valuecarevaluenurses.org.

I say if managers, administrators and the rest of the of the crowd out there is silent towards us, we take matters into our own hand. Let's recognize, apprecciate and thank nurses we know and work with, for their hard work, commitment, sacrifices, knowledge and expertise.

weekend warrior, BSN, RN · May 12, 2006

It is Nurses Week too at our hospital, haven't seen much going on though. The annual Nursing Award, free breakfast ( if you are working that shift ) and of course the brown bag lunches with lectures on different topics, basically, how to be a better nurse.

Yeah.. thanks.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · May 12, 2006

If you are a nurse and it is Nurses week, then you should go around and ask your colleges to pitch in a few bucks to buy yourselves lunch or fun shirts or Stethescope covers, ect. Or take it apon yourselves to go to administration (With actual ideas, and not to complain) and offer to help out! People just expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter and complain when it falls short of their expectation. Just like National Nursing Home Week-- it is the responsibility of EVERY department in the nursing home (dietary, nursing, housekeeping, ect.) but all of the work will fall on the Activity Department and then everyone will complain when it falls short of their expectations!

That has zero to do with what the thread is about.