On 12 May, as every year, we celebrate International Nurses’ Day. Will you meet a nurse this week? With a kind word and perhaps a small token of your appreciation, thank them for the work they do. It will certainly brighten their day.
“My child has a fever for the third day. I really feel it is urgent to have her checked by a doctor. I call the surgery again and again. It’s either busy or no one answers. I get even more nervous and angry with those on the other end. Finally, I get through and make an appointment.
As I sit with my daughter in my lap at nurse’s desk, I watch her at work. I am now experiencing what it means to be on the other end. The phone rings off the hook, she listens patiently and gives advice to parents on how to treat their sick child. In between, she is printing prescriptions, the child in the waiting room vomits, she jumps in to help, she takes the charts from the doctor, she works and rushes as if she had four arms.
I see now that I was on the calm side of the telephone wire before, and I realize that it must be her big heart that keeps her going.”
Nurses are on the front lines every day — performing physical exams, nursing wounds, administering shots and medication and in many cases caring for dying patients when the doctor is away. Nurses are often the ones who are there for us during our most vulnerable moments.
This year’s Nurses Day theme is Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health. It focuses on the need to protect, support and invest in the nursing profession to strengthen health systems around the world. We need to realize that nurses provide accessible, person-centered and holistic care for all from birth to death, non-communicable diseases to infection disease, mental health to chronic conditions, in hospitals, communities and homes.
Nursing is certainly one of those professions we call “behind-the-scenes” profession. That is why simple words such as »Thank you for all you do« are the least we can do to show we notice and appreciate the often incredibly selfless work that you do.
