Every year, May 12 has been observed as International Nurses day throughout the world. We have more than one reason to celebrate the day as it just doesn't mark the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing this year but also the world is facing a grievous challenge where nurses worldwide have put their lives at stake to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The day marks the contributions that nurses make to society and why it is very important to appreciate all their efforts. The theme for this year’s International Nurses Day set by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) is ‘Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Nursing the World to Health’. Not only does it ring rightly with the current pandemic situation but it also focuses on the true value of these frontline workers.

ICN President Annette Kennedy has announced that she is expecting this year to be a momentous year for the profession.

“Having the Year of the Nurse and Midwife coincide with Florence Nightingale’s bicentennial raises the exciting prospect of nurses finally being recognized for all the good they do. All around the world, nurses are working tirelessly to provide the care and attention people need, whenever and wherever they need it. We want next year’s International Nurses Day to highlight that nurses are central to the delivery of health care, that nurses are making an invaluable contribution to the health of people globally. Nurses, because of their unique role of working with people from birth to death, need to be involved in health policy,” she said in an official statement last year.

This international Nurses day, let’s take a moment to applaud and thank the nurses worldwide for the following:

  • Choosing such a noble profession and exhausting work they do by taking care of sick people
  • Carrying the burden of preserving human dignity amid uncertainty
  • Being critical thinkers, innovators and for transforming lives
  • Tending to patients when they are the most fragile
  • Delivering hour-to-hour care and acting as an empathetic ear
  • Bringing hope during the worst days of people’s lives
  • Walking alongside patients during their moments of vulnerabilities
  • Being in the trenches and on the front lines of care
  • Choosing selflessness over self-preservation
Nurses and doctors have been applauded across the globe as heroes
Nurses and doctors have been applauded across the globe as heroes AFP / Ina FASSBENDER
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