News
Value the invaluable and celebrate nurses
SIMCOE, MAY 3, 2011 – Each May, nurses around the world celebrate Nurses’ Week, timed to honour the birth date of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. Nightingale is considered by many to be the founder of modern nursing.
With more than 280,000 nurses employed across Canada, nursing is the largest health care occupation in the country.
Working in various settings, such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, workplaces and schools, nurses also serve as the health care profession with the highest amount of direct, every day interaction with people.
“Nurses play a critical, and diverse, role in the delivery of health services,” noted Melanie Laundry, Program Coordinator of the Family Health Team at the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit. “The caring nature of our nurses, and their willingness to go above and beyond their call of duty, define the essence of nursing at its finest.”
As a vital member of a multi-disciplinary health care team, the Registered Nurses at the Health Unit manage a variety of topics and tasks such as prenatal and postnatal care, family planning, child health care clinics, parenting classes, immunization clinics, and disease surveillance. The nurses are also involved in community outreach and health promotion, investigation of communicable diseases, and developing healthy policies, among many other things.
Public Health Nurses have the expanded role of addressing chronic diseases that are on the increase due to the lifestyle changes and an aging population in Haldimand and Norfolk.
“Whether they are teaching prenatal classes, counselling high school students, operating immunization clinics or sitting on inter-agency committees, our nurses are deeply committed to providing the best quality of care possible to the residents of Haldimand and Norfolk,” added Laundry.
Public Health Nurses at the Health Unit, along with the 55,000 other nurses in Ontario, will recognize Nurses’ Week during the week of May 9th. The provincial theme this year, ‘Value the Invaluable,’ speaks to the important role nurses play in advocating for safe patient care. The overarching national theme for 2011 is “Nursing – The Health of our Nation.”
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Media contact:
Frances deBoer
Public Health Nurse
Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit
905-318-5367 ext. 301
[email protected]