Page 19 - Impression May 2020

H OSPITAL WEEK

National

ospital

Week

May 10 - 16

Heroes Among Us

National Hospital Week is an opportunity to highlight our hospitals and health systems for
the support they provide to the communities they serve. Much like Nurses Week, National
Hospital Day was established on Florence Nightingale's birthday, in 1921. The event began

as a publicity campaign devised to help boost peoples’ confidence in hospitals following the
1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. In 1953, this annual event was expanded to encompass
the entire week (Sunday-Saturday) of Ms. Nightingale’s birthday, May 12.

Today, as a strained healthcare system battles the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,
peoples’ confidence in hospitals is not waning; instead, it is growing. This however, is not
due to amazing patient outcomes; it is due to the courage of healthcare workers who

selflessly put themselves in harm’s way to provide care and compassion to others. National
Hospital Week provides an occasion to celebrate these healthcare workers whose actions
can only be described as heroic. In these unprecedented times, the outpouring of gratitude
and goodwill towards our healthcare heroes helps to heal our spirits and bring hope in the
face of uncertainty.

While others look outward toward the selfless acts of healthcare workers as a beacon to
guide them through these challenging times, healthcare workers must look inward. We are
the heroes among us. We must recognize that our actions in the face of this crisis inspires
humanity. We must look to each other to build solidarity that grounds itself in mutual
respect and appreciation. We must celebrate each other for the unique gifts we each
contribute to the care of our patients and each other. We must reach out to each other when

we are beginning to feel that the rigors we are facing are having a negative emotional
impact.

Let this hospital week not only be a reason to celebrate those around you, but also a reason
to celebrate yourself. You may not have signed up to be a hero, but you are the hero we need
right now.