Celebrating National Nurses & Hospital Week 2013

National-Nurses-Week-2013A special message from our Mission and Spiritual Care Team:

May 6-12, 2013 is National Nurses Week. No other profession touches people the same way a nurse does. Our nurses touch the heart, soul, mind and body of each patient.

A patient commented, “I am 82 years old and the nurse saw that I was frightened and she asked if I wanted her to stay with me…. She stayed and comforted me…. I loved the concern and I felt safe!!!” Another patient commented, “Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best things….”

Although each day is a challenge, and the work is often physically and emotionally demanding, what a privilege the nursing profession must be. Florence Nightingale – the Founder of Nursing – put it well: nursing is a “higher calling” for the special few who can combined art and science into a thing of beauty, compassion and caring at the bedside. It is not just a job, it is a mission.

Following Nurses Week, we celebrate National Hospital Week, May 12-18, 2013. For years, Franciscan Alliance hospitals have touched the hearts, souls, minds and bodies of thousands in Nortwest Indiana and South Chicago land. It is a continuing mission that begun 150 years ago by Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel – the Founder of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Little did Florence Nightingale and Mother Theresia realize that over a century later their visions would converge across the Atlantic as Franciscan Alliance.

Let us honor and celebrate our nurses and staff for continuing to answer the call to bring Christ’s compassion and caring to others. WE ARE PROUD OF OUR NURSES! WE ARE PROUD OF OUR STAFF!