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This week is National Nurses Week, and never has there been a more important moment to recognize and honor the women and men who have chosen nursing as a profession. To all the nurses who will continue this week to sacrifice and to heal others: with deepest gratitude, thank you.
This week is National Nurses Week, and never has there been a more important moment to recognize and honor the women and men who have chosen nursing as a profession.
Since the global pandemic began, nurses have risked their own health and, indeed, their lives. In California alone, thousands have contracted COVID-19 in service to so many who need them.
That ultimate expression is humbling, as are many other sacrifices that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Even as many of us have taken to the security of our homes to continue our work while watching over our families, nurses have done the opposite. They leave their families to form the front line of defense in the face of a public health crisis. They spend long, grueling hours caring for other peoples’ loved ones, forgoing their need to protect their own.
To say they’ve endured challenges is an understatement. Contending with contagion and with so many in need has meant that nurses’ and other health care workers’ focus on saving lives has often come at the expense of one of the very things that compels them to their profession: the time to soothe and comfort.
They’ve persevered in all the ways we know, and in ways we can only imagine, with true grit, true strength, true heroism.
At another time during National Nurses Week, hospitals across the state would be honoring their nurses with special celebrations and events. While there will be some of that this year — and CHA will be doing its part through Facebook and Twitter — the COVID-19 crisis may pre-empt the traditional gatherings they deserve.
But anyone who knows a nurse knows that will be OK, because we all know that California’s nurses do what they do not for recognition, but for the gift their meaningful work brings — to them and to those in their care.
To all the nurses who will continue this week to sacrifice and to heal others: with deepest gratitude, thank you.
– Carmela