Nurses

We have all come into contact with a nurse. They are the medical professionals that undertake much of the grunt work, while doctors float about dictating orders.  The most famous nurse maybe the fictional Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan, followed by Florence Nightingale. Generation Z may not know Hotlips, or Florence. Yes, nurses do a great deal of work and can put in long hours. They even have a week dedicated to themselves, not a day (well, they have that too), but a week.

One would think Nurses week would start on a Sunday and last through the following Saturday, but this year it started on a Tuesday. I found this odd. Is it a play to the fact that some nurses do not have Mon-Fri or 9 - 5 jobs? What I found out is that Nurses week ends on Florence Nightingale's birthday, May 12, so it begins one week early with National Nurses Day on May 6. Instead of celebrating Nurses Day on May 12, they essentially have two recognized days and the whole week in between. 

Florence Nightingale, c 1860

National Nurses Week was established by a nursing organization in January1974. President Nixon declared a week in February 1974 to recognize those often low-sung heroes of the medical profession. My wife is a nurse, so I should have been paying more homage to her this week. Heck, she is a mother, and Mother's Day fell the day before Florence's birthday, so she could get double recognition. Lucky her.

Hotlips on MASH set

Nurses must have a great lobby, after all it was their own organization that came up with the idea to celebrate themselves. Some causes have months, Women's History Month, Pride month, just to name two. After Nurses Week, the third week of May celebrates American Public Works Week. Now, as a former city planner, I looked up if there was a planners week. Sure enough there is a planners day, but not city or regional planners, but the type of planner that you use to layout your day or week or month. Basically a calendar. My wife would like that as she is a highly organized list making kind of person. She may like that more than Nurses Week.

My spouse, as a nurse, gets kudos for a whole week, while as a city planner we get topped by a calendar schedule. Planners must lack the lobby efforts of nurses and other organizations, or else they have more humility to not call attention to themselves. Now, I get it, nurses perform work that impacts ones health, and that work is important. We planners simply help create the built environment, and minimize impact on the natural. Hey, just because we had a hand in where they work, the roads that took the bus or car from their home to the hospital or clinic, there is no need for any recognition. Planners often bear the brunt of bad tempers from having to tell a person no. I have long said, if the Fitchburg festival had me in a dunk tank the line would be around the block at McKee Farms Park. Yet, if conserving farm land, and attempting to thwart bad development was the cost, it is a badge I gladly wore.

UW Capping Ceremony for Nursing Students
1950's

While I had the metaphorical badge for attempting to thwart bad development, my wife does not own a nurse cap. Apparently, nurse caps have been a thing of the past since before the 1990's. She then, and now get a pin. How exciting. I like the cap idea better. The cap was referred to as a Flossie, in honor of Florence Nightingale. Perhaps the pinning ceremony should be referenced as the Holi, in honor of Hotlips, whose nickname was in honor of her ability to get pinned. The medical profession has a long list of alphabet titles now, apparently to spread out duties to lower cost staff. Meriter nurses are considering going on strike, for pay, working conditions and what ever else. Nurses there working fulltime and without shift pay, make over $100,000 a year. I am not sure how much sympathy they will get. The medical profession is full of sludge--required actions that make things difficult and expensive. I have to say, it is probably worse than government. 

Medical care, with aging baby boomers and the continued Make America Ill of processed foods, high fructose corn syrup and other additives all work against the human body and our health. Nurses are in demand and that is why they can earn that level of pay. As Nursing week comes to a close, I ponder what comes next, will May become Nursing Month? Or better yet, start April 14 and end May 12 for four weeks of nurse appreciation? While I may pick on her, I do appreciate my live-in nurse. 

Photos from Google Images