Saying Thanks To Nurses

Today is National Nurses Day during National Nurses Week, in honor and recognition of their work and dedication. It goes back to 1953 when Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare proposed to President Eisenhower to proclaim a "Nurse Day". Today is also National School Nurses Day which always falls on the Wednesday on Nurses Week.

Next Monday is International Nurse Day, always celebrated on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. She’s most famous for attending to wounded British troops during the Crimean War in what is now Turkey. She arrived at the main British camp in 1854 along with a staff of 38 volunteer women nurses including 15 Catholic nuns. She became known as the Lady with the Lamp for making her rounds from soldier to soldier at night.

To this day, four hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey are named in her honor.