International Nurses Day

Unfortunately, many people seem to think that the most important people in the healthcare system are the doctors, but this is simply not true.

Ever the underdog, nurses play a key role in all of our medical institutions, being responsible for the welfare, safety and recovery of patients.

Nurses have an enormous amount of knowledge and many diverse skills they spend years perfecting and developing, all the time working in decidedly tough environments where extreme stress is just a part of the job.

Nurses help bring new life into the world, care tirelessly for the sick and injured, and sometimes watch the patients they did everything to save pass away despite their best efforts.

On many occasions, it was a vigilant nurse who noticed a mistake in a doctor's prescription in time to save someone's life. Acknowledge the hard work, long hours, and emotional duress that are part of the life of every nurse on International Nurses Day.

International Nurses Day has been created so that we can pay honor and tribute to all of the nurses around the world and the incredible work they do. It is crazy to think about a world without nurses.

Who would be there to care for us when we're not feeling well? Nurses bring so much to our lives, and the lives of the people that we love, and so it is only right that we have a day that honors them and recognizes all of their efforts!

Nurses have a very varied role and they are responsible for a number of different things in the workplace. This includes writing care plans for patients, assisting with evaluations and tests, setting up blood transfusions and drips, checking and administering drugs and injections, observing and recording the condition of patients.

They will also maintain patient records, mentor junior and student nurses, organise staff, and reassure patients and their relatives. This merely scratches the surface! From responding quickly to emergencies to planning hospital discharges and carrying out routine investigations, the list goes on!

Nurses certainly have a huge role to play when it comes to the health and wellbeing of people all around the world. Because this day is all about celebrating nurses' endless contributions to society, take this opportunity to show a nurse who has taken care of you how much you appreciate him or her.

As with most gestures of appreciation, whatever you decide to do need not be grand or cost much money. Sad as it is, many people neglect to thank their nurses at all, seeing them only as robots who only know how to follow the doctor's orders, so every little way to say a simple "thank you" will definitely make that nurse's day.

If you are feeling especially grateful for the way a certain nurse took care of you (fed you, brought you a blanket, cleaned vomit off of you, monitored your vital signs, made sure you were getting the right pills, changed your wound dressings, helped you get to the bathroom, let you cry on his or her shoulder, or any of the hundreds of other things nurses do), today is the day to show that gratitude.

So take a trip down to the hospital with a box of chocolates, a nice bottle of wine, or anything else you think that particular nurse might like.