International Nurses Day – Lesser Known Facts About Nurses and Why They Are Crucial To Healthcare

International Nurses Day is being observed on Thursday,  a day set aside each year to honour the efforts of nurses. The day also marks the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, who is renowned as the ‘Father of Modern Nursing’ for her contributions to the betterment of the healthcare system.

The day is all the more important in the midst of the epidemic when physicians and nurses have emerged as our heroes for their extraordinary – and sometimes stressful – efforts in protecting public health. The International Council of Nurses (ICN), which observes this significant day every year, has themed this year’s commemoration Nurses: A Voice to Lead – Invest in Nursing and Respect Rights to Secure Global Health.

Who was Florence Nightingale?
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer and statistician in addition to being the originator of modern nursing. She not only made significant contributions to the betterment of the health sector, but she also wrote over 150 books, booklets, and studies on health-related subjects. She is known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ and is recognized for caring for injured British soldiers during the Crimean War, which lasted from 1853 to 1856.

She received the order of merit in 1907, making her the first woman to obtain this honour. In 1860, she established a nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, establishing the groundwork for professional nursing and enhancing the job’s prestige. She had an affinity for mathematics at a young age and went on to become a pioneer in the visual representation of information, such as pie charts, which were a relatively novel means of displaying data at the time. William Playfair created the first pie chart in 1801.

PM Modi expresses gratitude to nurses!
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised nurses on Thursday for their ‘dedication and compassion’ and acknowledged their ‘important role’ in keeping the world healthy. ‘Nurses play an important part in keeping our world healthy. Their commitment and compassion are outstanding. International Nurses Day is a day to express our gratitude to all nursing personnel for their excellent job even in the most difficult of circumstances ‘, the prime minister stated in a tweet.