Perhaps this is a bit anti-climactic but I had hinted to Kim that I would like to know the history behind Nurse’s Day and/or Nurse’s Week in a post on my blog. But I just couldn’t wait to find out. So here are some interesting little tid-bits I came across:

Nurse’s Day was originally going to be in October. However, in 1953 President Eisenhower did not follow through with this proposal. But in the following year Nurse’s Week occurred from October 11 - 16 despite the lack of official government recognition. This week marked the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea.

There were several more attempts to have government proclaim an official Nurses Day in the 1970’s. We have President Nixon to thank as the first president to issue an official White House designation of a National Nurse Week in February 1974.

Four years later, it was the state of New Jersey that moved the day to May. The Governor wanted a day to recognize the nurses in his state and began his own promotion.

It wasn’t until the 1980’s that the US Congress recognized May 6th as the official Nurse’s Day, and President Reagan signed a proclamation in 1982 that made it official official! Eight years later the American Nurses Association (ANA) moved this day to a week, thus making the present day celebration that lasts a week.

The official National Nurses Week was in 1994 during May 6 - 12. Even more recently the ANA made May 6th the day to recognize the work of Registered Nurses (officially called the National RN Recognition Day) and then May 8th as National Student Nurses Day.

There is even an International Nurses Day every May 12th. The International Council of Nurses have celebrated this day since 1965.