For the Advance
The last 13 months have been tough for everyone. They’ve been tougher if you’re a first responder. Tougher still if you’re a nurse. No one has shouldered more responsibility in the struggle with COVID-19.
This year, May 10 to 16 is National Nursing Week and May 12 is International Nurses Day. It is also the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who is considered to be the mother of modern nursing.
It’s a time to consider the roles nurses and nursing care plays in all our lives. There’s almost no one who won’t be helped by a nurse in their lifetime.
Nurses are there for the first breath many of us take, ensuring health and safety alongside doctors and midwives. And they’re there in long-term care, hospice, and hospital wards, whether it’s working to save lives or simply to ease pain at the end.
The pandemic has brought into stark focus the work nurses do. We know that it is hard work, skilled work, and often emotionally-taxing work.
It’s also work that often goes unremarked. When we’re in the hospital, or a loved one is ill, we remember how much the nurses are doing, and we’re grateful, but in between those moments of family crisis, it’s easy to forget.
It takes a very special kind of person to be a nurse and dedicate their time to caring for others. The coronavirus has brought the role that nurses play to the forefront of our minds.
We’re still in our third wave here in B.C. While we have hopes of returning to something like normal soon, none of us who have lived through this pandemic year will ever forget the contribution made by all our medical workers, particularly the nurses, who’ve been at the frontlines through it all.
