FROM THE PRESIDENT

With this issue of Texas Medical Center News, the Texas Medical Center joins the American Nurses Association in celebrating National Nurses Week May 6 through 12. The theme of this year’s celebration, in keeping with the country’s renewed patriotism, is "Nurses Care for America."

Raising public awareness of the value of nursing and educating the public about the vital roles nurses play in meeting America’s health care needs is the purpose of this national week of recognition.

National Nurses Week was first observed in 1954 to mark the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. Since 1990, this national week of recognition has been celebrated in May, culminating on Nightingale’s May 12 birthday.

Much has changed since Ms. Nightingale formalized the nursing profession. No longer are nurses solely at the bedside. While hospital nursing remains integral and invaluable, nursing graduates now have a broad scope of less traditional choices available. Today, they are branching out into public health, forensic medicine, and clinical research roles, to name a few.

Public health nurses serve the needs of the community at large, as opposed to focusing on individual patients. They spearhead patient education projects to promote healthy community lifestyles, staff community health centers, promote preventive care by administering inoculations to children, and most recently, train nursing staff for bioterrorism and disaster preparedness.

One unique example of how nursing students fulfill a public health role can be found at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science. Local nursing students teach children visiting the museum about various health topics, and host hands-on dissections and discovery cart demonstrations.

Forensic nurses work on medical/legal issues with both the living and the deceased. Harris County’s new nurse death investigator works in the county medical examiner’s office, where she performs medical records searches, going out to crime scenes to help recover bodies and collect evidence, taking photographs, talking with police officers and families, and giving death notification.

Research nurses conduct clinical studies to assess the effect of various factors on patient populations. For example, one study currently under way at The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston is examining how adolescents of various ethnicities react to mental distress. Another is looking at intervention techniques for stroke survivors and spousal caregivers.

Like nursing roles, demographics, too, are changing with the times. Traditionally a female-oriented profession, nursing now is attracting record numbers of men. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Bureau of Health Professions recently noted that men in the registered nurse population increased from 4.9 percent in 1996 to 5.9 percent in 2000. Within the Texas Medical Center, male nurses are well represented, both in clinical practice and in nursing education programs.

To all Texas Medical Center nurses, regardless of gender or role, we extend our sincere thanks for your dedication and patient-centered professionalism.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/05_01_02/page_32.html