National Nurses Week 2022 has arrived.
Each year, the week-long celebration honoring nurses runs May 6th to May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Nightingale’s treatment of soldiers during the Crimean War in the 19th Century helped spark the modern era of nursing.
While the American Nursing Association (ANA) has promoted nursing since 1896, the establishment of National Nurses Week took decades and the assistance of multiple presidents and proclamations.
In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a “Nurse Day” in October 1954. Eisenhower never made the proclamation.
In 1974, President Nixon issued a White House proclamation for National Nurse Week to be observed during one week in February of that year.
In 1982, the ANA Board of Directors established May 6, 1982 as "National Nurses Day." This followed a joint resolution by the United States Congress designating May 6 as "National Recognition Day for Nurses." President Reagan then signed a proclamation for "National Recognition Day for Nurses" to be recognized on May 6, 1982.
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In 1990, the ANA board expanded the proclamation into a week-long event by declaring May 6 -12, 1991 as National Nurses Week.
In 1993, the ANA board said National Nurses Week would be observed from May 6 -12 on a permanent basis beginning in 1994.
Over the last two years, the efforts of nurses across the country have been especially invaluable amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and showing them gratitude is the least we can do this week.
In addition, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses has compiled a list of national chains and brands offering special discounts and freebies to nurses during National Nurses Week.
