Eisenhower Commemorative

Nurses Week 2010 Begins And Nurses Day Is Not Far Off

Nurses Week 2010 will start May 6. Nurses Week 2010 will be from May 6 to May 12, ending on Nurses Day. They easily warrant recognition. They toil day and night at hospitals, emergency rooms, and clinics at all hours of the day, all over the world. Their efforts deserve recognition, though I imagine they’d just as much rather have some more payday cash.

May 6 starts Nurses Week 2010, ends with Nurses Day

Nurses Week 2010 will start May 6, as it usually does. Nurses Week 2010 will end, as it usually does, on May 12. May 12 is actually Florence Nightingale’s birthday. She was a pioneer, and helped originate the nursing profession as we know it.

When did this begin?

The American Nurses Association website gives the history as beginning with a 1953 request for President Eisenhower to observe a Nurses Day. Ike wasn’t having it, but a Nurses Week was observed by many people informally the next year in October to commemorate Florence Nightingale’s service during the Crimean War. The first to officially proclaim a Nurses Week was Richard Nixon, in 1974. The International Council of Nurses starting observing a Nurses Day in 1965, and in 1974 decided to make International Nurses Day on May 12, honoring Florence Nightingale.

Ever since then May 12 has been Nurses Day

Since then, May 12 has been observed as Nurses Day by those in the profession, and various state governments started observing a Nurses Day, though typically on May 6. In 1990, the holiday was expanded to an entire Nurses Week, running from May 6 to May 12. They deserve the accolades. Like Teacher Appreciation Week, a day or two out of the year to acknowledge their contributions is definitely warranted.

Article resources

American Nurses Association

http://www.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/MediaResources/NationalNursesWeek/MediaKit/NNWHistory.aspx

Just Wild About Harry Chapin Concert 2010 – in support of the Chapin Commemorative Stamp Project