How to Celebrate International Nurses Day
Show Appreciation
Because this day is all about celebrating nurses’ endless contributions to society, take this opportunity to show a nurse who has taken care of you how much you appreciate her or him!
As with most gestures of appreciation, whatever you decide to do need not be grand or cost much money. If you are feeling especially grateful for the way a certain nurse took care of you (fed you, brought you a blanket, let you cry on his or her shoulder, or any of the hundreds of other things nurses do), today is the day to show that gratitude.
Give Gifts to a Special Nurse
So take a trip down to the hospital with a box of chocolates, a nice bottle of wine, or anything else you think that particular nurse might like.
Some people, after having spent months in the hospital with a serious condition, decide to order pizza or cake for the entire medical team that was looking after them, a gesture that that team is guaranteed to remember you for forever, if you should decide on it.
However, as mentioned before, it’s the thought that counts the most. A nurse’s main goal is to help you get through treatment and get better, so just knowing he or she succeeded is a reward in itself.
Research Florence Nightingale
As the day has been chosen because it is the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birthday, you may want to spend some time researching more about Florence Nightingale and everything that she achieved.
There are a lot of online resources, as well as plenty of books that have been published as well. Florence Nightingale is created with being the founder of modern nursing.
She served as a trainer and manager of nurses throughout the Crimean War, organizing care for soldiers who had been wounded in battle. This resulted in her being an icon of Victorian culture, giving nurses a favorable reputation.
Florence also laid the foundations for professional nursing when she established a nursing school in 1860. This was in London at St Thomas’ Hospital. Today, it is part of King’s College London. Back then, it was the world’s very first secular nursing school, which is quite some achievement!
This merely scratches the surface of her achievements. Her social reforms include expanding female participation in the workforce, helping to eradicate prostitution laws that were hard for women, advocating improved hunger relief in India, and improving healthcare for all sections of society in Britain.