International Nurses Day 2024 Its History & Significance
International Nurses Day 2024: It is celebrated on 12 May to mark the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale and also to thank the nurses for their tireless efforts and contributions.
International Nurses Day 2024: This day is to thank all nurses, for their dedication. Nurses are indispensable in safeguarding public health. As Val Saintsbury rightly said, “Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription.” Let us read more about International Nurses Day, its theme, history, and how is it celebrated.
Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820, in Florence (Italy) and is known as the foundational philosopher of modern nursing. She is also famous as "The Lady with the Lamp". She was a British nurse, statistician, and social reformer who was the founder and philosopher of modern nursing. During the Crimean War, she was put in charge of nursing British and Allied soldiers. She spends several hours in the wards and the whole night she cared for patients, visited them, night rounds with a lamp in her hand and so an image was established as "Lady with the Lamp". Due to her efforts in formalising nursing education, the first scientifically based nursing school, the Nightingale School of Nursing, at St. Thoma's Hospital in London was opened in 1860. She was also instrumental in setting up training for midwives and nurses in workhouse infirmaries. Do you know that she was the first woman awarded the Order of Merit in 1907?
International Nurses Day 2024: Theme
International Nurses Day 2023 will be celebrated on the theme 'Our Nurses, Our Future.' This global campaign sets out what we want for nursing in the future in order to address global health challenges and improve global health for all. We need to learn from the lessons of the pandemic and translate these into actions of the future.
The theme for 2022 is Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Invest in Nursing and respect rights to secure global health.
The theme for 2021 is Nurses: A Voice to Lead - A vision for future healthcare. The theme focuses on how nursing will look into the future and also how the profession will transform the next stage of healthcare.
The theme for 2020 was Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Nursing the World to Health. The theme focuses on how nurses are playing a crucial role in addressing a wide range of health challenges. The day encourages nurses and the public to celebrate the day. It will also provide information and resources so that the profession will grow throughout the year and attract a new generation into the nursing family.
The theme for 2019 was "Health For All". And National Nurses Day 2019 theme is "Nursing: The Balance of Mind, Body, and Spirit".
International Nurses Day: History
In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland, an official with the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, contacted President Dwight D. Eisenhower and proposed to celebrate "Nurses Day". At that time he did not approve her proposal. Since 1965, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) has celebrated this day. Finally, in January 1974, 12 May was officially declared as ‘International Nurses Day’ because on this date Florence Nightingale was born, who is the founder of modern nursing. Every year on this day ICN prepares and distributes the International Nurses Day Kit which consists of educational and public information materials that can be used by nurses among the public. Let us tell you that National Student Nurse's Day is celebrated on 8 May since 1998 and National Nurses week from 6 May to 12 May.
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”– Mother Teresa
International Nurses Day 2023: Know about Florence Nightingale Museum
How is International Nurses Day celebrated?
In the US and Canada, a whole week is celebrated as National Nursing Week. Even in Australia also a variety of nursing ceremonies are organised. This whole week healthcare services on the international level are targeted. Even American Nurses Association supports and encourages the celebration and work of the Nurses.
Various activities are also held like educational seminars, a variety of community events, debates, competitions, discussions, etc. Also, nurses are honoured and appreciated by friends, doctors, administrators, and patients by distributing gifts, flowers, organising dinners, etc.
International Nurses Day: Significance
In the whole world, we can't ignore the fact that nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the world and they are the key factor in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Several training modules are provided to the nurses for maintaining the health and wellness of the patients.
No doubt nurses have deep knowledge of delivering the best health care services. Do you know that National Nurses Associations (NNAs) play an important role in encouraging nurses, providing education, well informed, advice so that they can deliver their work properly? Also, NNA works with governmental and non-governmental organisations to strengthen health care systems.
What is the International Council of Nurses (ICN)?
It is an organisation that operates nurses and leads nursing internationally. They ensure quality nursing care for all and sound health policies all around the world. Every year ICN chooses a theme to celebrate International Nurses Day. The resources and evidence deal with critical issues of the time and highlight the many ways in which nurses are making an impact.
So, we can say that International Nurses Day is celebrated across the world to raise awareness about nursing as a profession and also the contribution made by the nurses towards the health care regime. Nurses are the people who meet the local needs of the patients, have proper knowledge about how to handle patients properly, improve the physical, and mental well-being of the patients, etc.
Nurses play an essential role in our medical institutions such as giving safety or helping in the recovery of patients etc. No doubt when some patient is in need of care then nurses work tirelessly to identify and protect the needs of the individual. They have immense knowledge and several skills that they spend in an organisation for perfection and development. Most of the time nurses work in tough environments where extreme stress is a part of their job.
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