International Nurses Day is celebrated every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale and to mark the nurses’ contributions towards people’s health.
Nurses Day for the first time was proposed by Dorothy Sutherland (an officer from the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare) in the year 1953 and first proclaimed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
International Council of Nurses (ICN) celebrated the event for the first time in the year 1965. The day also marks the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale – the founder of modern nursing. May 12th was declared to be celebrated as the birthday anniversary of Florence Nightinagle in the year 1974.
Florence Nightingale (the foundational philosopher of the modern nursing) was born on 12th of May in 1820. She became an important figure of the nursing since Crimean War during the 1850s. She reformed the health care services and nursing and opened “the Nightingale School of Nursing” at the St. Thomas Hospital, London in 1860.
The theme of the celebration is selected based on nurses and environment, handling poor, poverty issues and many more. It is celebrated as a week long event, referred to as National Nurses Week, in many countries like Australia, United States, Canada and etc.
The theme of International Nurses Day 2018 is: “Nurses: Inspire, Innovate, Influence”.
