Are you ready for National Nurses Week 2017?

Honoring nurses for your hard work and dedication throughout the year, the American Nurses Association (ANA) will be celebrating its annual National Nurses Week from May 6-12, 2017.

ANA’s National Nurses Week 2017 theme — “Nursing: the Balance of Mind, Body, and Spirit” — celebrates nurses who lead the charge for health and wellness in their practice and profession. ANA has designated 2017 as the “Year of the Healthy Nurse.”

HISTORY OF NURSES WEEK

The ANA supports and encourages National Nurses Week recognition programs through the state and district nurses associations, other specialty nursing organizations, educational facilities, and independent health care companies and institutions.

Each of ANA’s state and territorial nurses associations promote the nursing profession at the state and regional levels. Each conducts celebrations on these dates to recognize the contributions that nurses and nursing make to the community.

National Nurses Week runs each year from May 6 to 12, ending on Florence Nightingale’s birthday. These permanent dates enhance planning and position National Nurses Week as an established recognition event. As of 1998, May 8 was designated as National Student Nurses Day, to be celebrated annually. And as of 2003, National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday within National Nurses Week each year.

Nightingale, who lived from 1820-1910, was known as the founder of professional nursing, especially due to her pioneering work during the Crimean War. Due to her habit of making rounds at night, Nightingale became known as “The Lady with the Lamp.” National Nurses Week was first observed in 1954, the 100th anniversary of her mission to Crimea.

CELEBRATION PLANS

During National Nurses Week, celebrations and receptions will be held in hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country.

ANA’s National Nurses Week Toolkit is a useful resource that provides you with additional ways to recognize nurses for their professional skills and abilities. For example, show your gratitude with a branded “Thank You Card.” Give every nurse a certificate of appreciation or hang display banners throughout the office. The National Nurses Week toolkit has plenty of ideas to plan a great celebration.

Nurses are encouraged to sign up for ANA’s free webinar, “A Nurse’s Guide to Preventing Compassion Fatigue, Moral Distress, and Burnout” on May 10 at 1:00 EST. During this one hour exclusive live event, Joyce A. Batcheller, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, will discuss the latest research in the field and provide you with tools and strategies to infuse meaning, joy, and restoration into your practice and life. Batcheller is senior vice president and CNO of the Seton Healthcare Family, the largest health care system in Central Texas.

After attending, nurses will be able to:

• Reduce the physical and emotional consequences of morally complex situations.
• Build confidence in confronting morally complex situations to reduce moral distress and burnout.
• Harness expert tips and strategies to build resilient teams.
• Use current research to prevent and combat compassion fatigue.
• Apply tools and strategies to recognize and overcome compassion fatigue.

PAYING IT FORWARD 

Once again this year, we are holding our annual ‘Inspired Nursing Stories’ writing contest.  What are your most memorable moments in nursing?  Have you had any poignant moments with patients and their families?  A mentor or preceptor that helped shape you into the nurse you are today?  Or was it a family member that helped you realize your calling to nursing at a young age?

Nurses, we want YOUR story!  The winning entry will receive a FitBit Alta, and the 1^st and 2^nd runners-up will receive gift cards. All of the top 12 stories will be featured in our 2018 Inspired Nurses: The Heroes of Healthcare glossy print calendars.

Click HERE to submit and help to ‘pay it forward’ by allowing other nurses to share in what keeps your nursing engine firing! You can also browse through some of our best stories from previous years to get your own ‘dose’ of nursing inspiration.

How are you planning to celebrate National Nurses Week? For all the official details from ANA, go to www.nursingworld.org/NationalNursesWeek.

Thanks SO much for all that you do, and best wishes for a terrific National Nurses Week!