National Nursing Week – May 11 to May 17

“This Nurse’s Week, on behalf of a grateful community, your Comox Valley Healthcare Foundation’s Board of Director’s, and myself, I want to truly thank you for all you do each and every day to make the lives of our community better, especially through these difficult times. Please know your selflessness and kindness doesn’t go unnoticed. We are all with you!”

– Colt Long, Executive Director

Here’s a unique and fun perspective from VIHA’s Library Services on this week and the person who inspired this week back in 1971, Florence Nightingale:

To celebrate Nurses and Healthcare Professionals and in honour of 2020’s designation as Year of the Nurse and Midwife, Library Services would like to take a moment for reflection.

May 12th is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale under whose guidance Nursing evolved into a recognized profession. But did you know that she was also a statistician who combined data and graphics to show stories about healthcare, diet and hygiene in hospitals? Her innovative work in data informatics allowed her to use statistics to save lives.

If you have four minutes, have a look at the animation “What would Florence Nightingale make of big data?“​ where the narrator notes, ‘Florence showed what could be achieved by following the evidence instead of gut instinct, prejudice or tradition.”

Florence Nightingale: Nurse. Statistician. Health Informatics Specialist. Graphics Artist. Media strategist. Nightingale used multiple skillsets to solve complex problems and in doing so revolutionized healthcare at the bedside.​

The week draws attention to nurses, increasing the awareness of the public, policy-makers and governments of the many contributions of nursing to the well-being of Canadians.

In 1971, ICN designated May 12, the birthday of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, as International Nurses Day. In 1985, CNA members passed a resolution to begin negotiations with the federal government to have the week containing May 12 proclaimed as National Nurses Week annually. Soon after, the federal minister of health proclaimed the second week of May as National Nurses Week. In 1993, the name was changed to National Nursing Week to emphasize the profession’s accomplishments as a discipline.

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