May 6-12, 2024
National Nurses Day is the first day of National Nursing Week, which concludes on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Yet the week was first observed in the US in October 1954 to mark the 100th anniversary of Nightingale’s pioneering work in Crimea.
In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower asking him to proclaim a “Nurse Day” in October of the following year to coincide with the anniversary. Although the President didn’t act, the celebration was observed thanks to a bill sponsored by Representative Frances P. Bolton, and the following year a new bill was introduced to Congress lobbying for official recognition of the celebration.
Twenty years later, in February of 1974, President Nixon proclaimed a National Nurse Week to be celebrated annually in May. Over the next eight years, various nursing organizations including the American Nurses Association (ANA) rallied to support calls for a “National Recognition Day for Nurses” on May 6, which was eventually proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982.
The American Nurses Association extended the celebration to “Nurses Week,” and the dates May 6-12 became permanent as of 1994. Within Nurses Week, National Student Nurse Day is May 8, and National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday that falls during Nurses Week.
Nursing has always been a profession that needs more than just your time and knowledge. Nursing requires heart, passion, and dedication to serving others. Nurses Week allows the public to acknowledge and thank nurses for the work they choose every day. It’s a chance for us to pause and thank the nurses who have made a difference in our lives.
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