May 6-12 is celebrated as National Nurses week in the US.
National Nurses Week is celebrated in the U.S. by professional associations, healthcare organizations, and healthcare communities through May 6th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. This occasion provides the perfect opportunity to recognize and appreciate the contributions that nurses make in enhancing the quality of care and expanding access to care. The week is celebrated to acknowledge the full range of nurses’ contributions and to educate the general public about their vital role in healthcare management. About 19.3 million nurses (including 3.1 million registered nurses in the U.S.) provide healthcare services worldwide.
Nurses have a crucial role in every aspect of healthcare. Emergency room nurses work in different scenarios such as hospital emergency rooms, ambulances, helicopters, urgent care centers, and sports arenas. Plastic surgery nurses work directly with plastic surgeons performing procedures that range from elective procedures such as tummy tuck to complicated procedures like breast replacement after a mastectomy.
The changing role of nurses is the center of healthcare transformation in the U.S. The introduction of several unique models of care delivery, global payment reform and prevention has literally transformed the role of nurses. In addition to their role as clinicians, nurses have taken on positions as administrators, researchers, educators and policymakers.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Nurses – Leading the Way”. It recognizes nurses as leaders at the bedside, in the boardroom, throughout communities and in the halls of government. When compared to any other healthcare career, nursing is one of the fastest growing sectors and has become increasingly competitive. In a recent Gallup survey, more than 80% of Americans rated ranked nurses as having “high” or “very high” honesty and ethical standards and nurses topped the list of Honesty and Ethical Standards in Professions for all years since 1999, except for 2001.
Today, nurses have an important role to play in helping physicians with clinical documentation improvement (CDI) aimed at data integrity and clarity for effective healthcare management. Physicians look to nursing reports to effectively monitor patients’ conditions. Accuracy in these reports is ensured through professional nursing transcription services.
With the implementation of Affordable Care Act (ACA), the role of nurses has become more important as nurses will lead the efforts to expand primary care at community-based clinics and deliver more cost-effective healthcare services. The expanding job role is also reflected in the growing number of nurses moving in to C-suite and executive roles.
With new technologies and state-of-the-art document management systems for physicians, nurses will have to develop skill sets to master these tools to coordinate healthcare across teams of health professionals. They need to play an active role in helping patients manage their health and also shape procedures and policies to support outcome-focused health care.
Join us in celebrating National Nurses Week!
