Opinion: Nurses are 'center of health care.' They've earned respect, deserve to be honored
Kris Kipp is chair of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center Nurse Executive Council; Cynthia Latney is chief nurse executive at OhioHealth; Jerry Mansfield is chief nursing officer (Ohio) at Mount Carmel Health System; and Lee Ann Wallace is chief nursing officer at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
At this very moment, not far from where you’re reading this article, a nurse is making a difference in someone’s life.
As the nursing leaders of central Ohio’s four hospital systems, we’re proud to celebrate all nurses today, the beginning of National Nurses Week, who practice in hundreds of different locations and dozens of roles across our region.
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You work in nursing homes, hospitals, doctors’ offices, urgent care clinics, and in growing numbers in patients’ homes.
You are at the center of health care delivery, often spending more time with patients than other health professionals. You listen, you’re there when patients face their triumphs, and you support them during their setbacks.
We celebrate the work you do every day, and we feel blessed to practice beside you.
There are few professions that have such an intimate relationship with the people they serve, who are so tightly woven into the fabric of their lives.
We suspect that each person reading this article can recall a nurse in your past who made a difference in your life or the life of a loved one or who simply made you feel better by something they said or did at a time you needed it.
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That’s what attracted us to nursing, why we chose it as our life’s work, and why we continue to love it as our profession today: to have these kinds of relationships with other people, to help them through tough times and help them celebrate the good ones.
It’s hard work, but also rewarding work. It takes a combination of knowledge and caring to help our patients get back to where they want to be and to give them the confidence they need to continue their lives in better health.
For 21 years, nurses have been the number one most trusted profession in Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethical Standards poll.
We believe nurses earn this respect because of the way we’re educated and also because of the way we treat every patient we encounter at a vulnerable moment in their life.
We accept each person for who they are, regardless of their history, life situation or mental state. We know they’re entrusting us with their care. Our solemn oath is to keep them safe and comfortable, and to determine how best we and the other members of our team can restore their health.
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Even with polls showing overwhelming public respect, most nurses don’t know how appreciated they are. We’re too busy serving to think about that. It’s our work, it’s what we love. We do it today, and we’ll do it again tomorrow. It becomes normal, in a way, to help a patient or family through a crisis. We don’t often stop to realize how rare of a gift it is to listen to someone, to show compassion for another person’s pain, and to help in every way we can.
National Nurses Week started May 6 and ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, a nurse leader in the mid-1800s who studied conditions in the British military hospitals where she worked, then fought for better staff hygiene and patient nutrition.
Her efforts dramatically reduced infections and deaths. Her skills of detailed recordkeeping, attention to patient needs, and a willingness to lead change are still hallmarks of the nursing profession today.
This may be Nurses Week, but the moments we describe happen every hour of every day, and we should celebrate the work that nurses do every day. We’re happy to pause for this moment, though, to thank our nurse colleagues throughout Ohio for all they do, and to let them know how blessed we feel to practice beside them.
Kris Kipp is chair of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center Nurse Executive Council; Cynthia Latney is chief nurse executive at OhioHealth; Jerry Mansfield is chief nursing officer (Ohio) at Mount Carmel Health System; and Lee Ann Wallace is chief nursing officer at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why do Columbus are nurse deserve honor, respect?
