May 6th is the day that we celebrate National Nurses Day. It is the beginning of Nurses Week which concludes on May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale.
Unlike what you see on Grey’s Anatomy, it is the nurse who gives the shot and not the doctor. Unlike what you saw on Nurse Jackie, very few nurses are drug addicts stealing medicine from the patient. Unlike what you saw on Ben Casey or Dr. Kildare, nurses are not just subservient pretty little faces whose job it is jump when the doctor says jump. No, nurses are the professional health care givers who provide the backbone of our health care system. Much of their job isn’t exciting and doesn’t make for good television but is utterly necessary.
So on this National Nurses Day, I want to salute nurses everywhere and especially my own special nurse, the Complementary Spouse.
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The Complementary Spouse, BSN, RN, MHS, CPAN |
I am told by the Complementary Spouse that the only time she wore this white uniform with the pin and nurses cap was for this photo and at her graduation from nursing school. I won’t say what year she graduated other than to say it was in the last quarter of the 20th century.
I am on my way to the Duke School of Nursing this morning with my spouse and just wanted to say thanks for making me look like a jerk!
That would be my pleasure!
Smart man! And congrats to her and all the other nurses!
When I was in the hospital last year for kidney cancer surgery the nurses were the best part of the adventure. I am a clown by nature who goes into overdrive when terrified, and for four days I spent my energies trying to make them laugh and have a good time. They would come in about 2 in the morning and sit with me and swap stories. It hurt to laugh so hard but it took my mind off from other, more pressing problems. Great people, certainly.