2020 - International Year of the Nurse (Twist of Fate?)

       It's January 30, 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland and the Executive Board of the World Health Assembly just designated this year as the "International Year of the Nurse and Midwife", in part to honor the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale (knowing her general makeup, I'm not sure she would want so much fanfare except for the 'light' it casts on nursing).

       On May 12th of this year, just five days shy of International Nurses Day, I hailed their historic and more recent feats of 'health care heroism' in this space (see "From Cheers to Jeers?!"). I return, prompted by reading the most recent issue of "Pulse" (Journal of Oakland University School of Nursing), to highlight a few additional points of history not only relevant to this time honored profession (Gallup polls continue to rank nursing the highest in honesty and ethics among the various professions), but also to their critical role(s) forward in this ongoing pandemic.

       A plethora of recent articles acknowledging this well deserved honor inevitably cite Florence Nightingale's seminal work "Notes on Nursing" as laying the foundation for such fundamental practices as clean linens, fresh air, and other hygienic protocols, in their attempt to combat mortality and general morbidity from infections, etc. 

       In their defense, the WHA could not have foreseen the disruptive force COVID-19 would have on their planned celebration. On the other hand, this pandemic has been almost matchless in demonstrating the critical roles nurses fulfill as the primary point of contact for patients interacting with health care systems. As the "Economist' recently reported, nurses continue to account for about 90% of patients' interactions with health care workers worldwide. What better timing, then?