PROVIDENCE – National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
Providence Community Health Centers, with facilities serving more than 50,000 residents of Providence and its surrounding areas, is planning a special day to recognize its nearly 70 nurses, Wendy Chicoine, PCHC’s clinical trainer, said in a statement. “One of my favorite quotes from Nightingale is: ‘For the sick, it is important to have the best.’ I think this quote embodies our nursing staff at PCHC – they truly are the best.”
On May 12, PCHC’s nurses will enjoy a brunch and hear from several speakers, including PCHC’s Chief Executive Officer Merrill Thomas. Later, PCHC will hold a pinning ceremony, where clinics’ managers will personally pin each of their nurses. This ceremony, said Chicoine, demonstrates PCHC’s respect and appreciation of the nurses who make a big difference every day.
The late President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation for “National Recognition Day for Nurses” to be May 6, 1982. In 1990, the American Nurses Association board of directors expanded the recognition of nurses to a weeklong celebration, declaring May 6-12, 1991, as “National Nurses Week.” Born May 12, 1820 in Italy, Nightingale was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. She gave nursing a highly favorable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of “The Lady with the Lamp” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
