From assisting with life-threatening ER crises to delivering babies and caring for the elderly in their final moments, nurses perform some of the most difficult and heartbreaking tasks in the medical world. As workers who perform the most essential healthcare tasks, nurses serve as the first point of contact for most patients.

National Nurses Week honors their contributions and sacrifices and reminds us to thank the medical professionals who work very hard to help keep us healthy. It is celebrated between May 6, National Nurses Day, and May 12, the birthdate of celebrated nurse Florence Nightingale.

According to www.NationalToday.com,  nurses were once viewed as “lowly doctors’ assistants.”  Today, nurses are recognized as highly specialized professionals with a wide range of skills. Today, becoming a nurse requires at least four years of study and extreme focus and dedication. This versatile career with dozens of specialties is a crucial link between patients and doctors.

In a recent 2022 Gallup Poll, nurses are number one in the survey of most ethical and honest professions for the 20th year in a row.  According to Gallup, nurses have been the number one ranking profession since the inception of the list in 1999 with the exception of one year. That says volumes. The only year nurses were not number one was 2001, when firefighters understandably took the honor.

If you ARE a nurse, we thank you for your hard work and dedication to the residents of and visitors to our Brainerd Lakes Area.    We salute, honor and respect you for a job well done – a job you often do under some of the most unthinkable and undesirable conditions – not ONLY during National Nurses Week, but always.  THANK YOU NURSES, from the bottom of our hearts.