International Year of the Nurse
The World Health Assembly has designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife to honor of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and to advance nurses’ vital role in transforming health care around the world.
National Nurses Week
National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
Hospice Nurses
Connecticut Hospice is fortunate to have some of the best nurses anywhere. This has been true since our founding days almost fifty years ago, when far-seeing nurses set out to introduce the tenets of hospice care that exist today.
As years have passed, our nursing staff have built on those principles with a body of experience and knowledge that is second to none. Whether they are caring for patients in their homes (Hospice Home Care, Palliative Care at Home/Stand By Me) in another facility, or in our inpatient hospice setting (Inpatient Care, Inpatient Palliative Care), they bring excellence and dedication to all our hospice and palliative care patients and families.
This week we honor and applaud our nurses, particularly as they work under additional pressures brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. As Ann Kurth, Yale’s Dean of Nursing, writes –
“They deliver up to 80% of all services. They provide care with scientific evidence, expertise and empathy. They are a constant in the patients’ journey through this illness, inspiring confidence at the beginning, delivering attention throughout, and providing a compassionate presence as the sickest of their patients succumb.”
We have adorned the windows of our lobby with the names of the Nurses of Connecticut Hospice, as we do every year in recognition of their individual contributions to the excellence of our institution. Many visitors to the building every May in years past have asked whose names are displayed – sometimes imagining that they represent a patient memorial, but no – these are our own heroes.
Send a Message to our Nurses
We ask you to join us in thanking our tireless, expert, empathetic and steadfast care-giving colleagues, as we thank nurses everywhere at this time. If you wish to send a message of thanks or encouragement to our nurses, the heart of our organization, please email to development@hospice.com and we will make sure it reaches them all.
Further Reading
Op-Ed by Ann Kurth, Yale Dean of Nursing: We will need nurses to get us through COVID-19 – and the next pandemic
Some lighter reading: History of white nurse uniforms
