Salute to Nurses

© ADOBE STOCK SALUTE TO NURSES | SHOW YOUR APPRECIATION Take Time to Thank a Nurse Any day is a good day to celebrate America’s nurses. After all, every day patients enter medical offices and facilities and spend more time with nurses than any other health care provider.

But since 1993, the American Nurses Association has set aside a week to celebrate and elevate the nursing profession. This year, National Nursing Week is set for May 6-12 and features a host of events to honor the four million nurses across the country for the work they do. A special day set aside to honor nurses began in 1965 with Nurse’s Day, with the intent of raising public aware- ness of the important role and contributions nurses make to society, according to Nurses. © ADOBE STOCK com. An unofficial Nurses Week stretches back a decade about nursing is our ordinary end of our shift like many of Medical Quality, a shortage lenging and rewarding career earlier in 1954 to mark the is actually extraordinary. We other professions,” Mensik of registered nurses is project- field. 100th anniversary of Florence provide an amazing service to wrote. “We are there to help at ed to spread across the nation Nurses are truly the unsung Nightingale’s mission to the public, whether in hospi- a moment’s notice because we through 2030, with the South heroes of the health care pro- Crimea. tals, clinics, long-term care or care. That perspective of caring and West begin most affected. fession. They are dedicated to Then, as now, nurses are on in the community,” said is always with us and we On the upside, registered healing, compassionate care the front lines of a caring pro- Jennifer Mensik, a nurse who believe we are doing what any nursing is listed among the top and touch the lives of millions fession. On-duty around the wrote about how she cele- other person might do in the occupations for growth oppor- with their devotion and skills. clock 24/7, nurses are the care- brates her calling in an article same situation — that it was tunity into the next decade, So if you encounter a special givers we most rely on in on Nurse.com. our job.” according to the Bureau of event in your community almost any health care envi- “Being a nurse is not some- Unfortunately, there’s a nurs- Labor Statistics. In other during National Nursing Week, ronment. thing we turn off completely at ing shortage. According to a words, there’s never been a don’t hesitate to attend and “One of my favorite sayings any time. It doesn’t stop at the report in the American Journal better time to enter this chal- thank them. SALUTE TO NURSES | IN THE COMMUNITY Role of School Nurses Many will remember tem with such issues as atten- tion-deficit or hyperactivity the school nurse’s disorder, diabetes, life-threat- office as a place ening allergies and seizures. School nurses, often working where you went to with a school pediatrician, lay down if you felt ill develop medical recommen- dations and administration in and to wait for a the school environment and parent to pick you often beyond. School nurses are also the up. The nurse might first-responders to students also have checked suffering injuries incurred during sports or extracurricu- your temperature lar activities. In the event of an and dispensed an emergency, such as a school shooting, school nurses may aspirin. But today’s be among the first to treat any school nurses do so wounded students. They also play a critical role identifying much more. parental noncompliance with medical home goals, the Academy reports, or if neglect According to the American or abuse is suspected. Academy of Pediatrics, mod- It’s clear that times have ern school nurses: changed dramatically since Assess health complaints, the first school nurse was administer medication and appointed in New York City in care for students with special 1902. That nurse, Lina Rogers, health care needs. tended to the health care Develop contingencies for needs of more than 8,000 stu- managing emergencies and dents in four schools. Because urgent situations. of her success in reducing Manage health screening, absenteeism, the system immunizations and infectious added 12 more nurses and all disease reporting. but eradicated absences due Identify and manage chron- to medical conditions. ic healthcare needs. Although their duties and In fact, school nurses are mandates have expanded the primary caregiver to a © ADOBE STOCK since that time, the core role large portion of students living of the school nurse hasn’t in rural areas that lack other increased academic achieve- working together can be a cial health care needs enter changed: Attendance is key to health care access. They per- ment, improved attendance great example of team-based schools, the school nurse academic achievement. form a critical role in the com- and better graduation rates. care, providing comprehen- becomes a vital link helping Keeping students healthy munity to identify unmet According to the Academy’s sive health services to stu- both students and families to helps ensure they achieve suc- health needs and foster the position paper, school nurses dents, families and their com- reinforce treatment during cess and develop healthy prac- relationship between health and pediatricians, both com- munities. and after the school day. Many tices during the school years and education, resulting in munity- and school-based, As more children with spe- children enter the school sys- and well into their adult lives. SALUTE TO NURSES | EMERGENCY CARE Critical Care in the Air When accidents and life- threatening injuries occur, time is of the essence between the scene and medical care. That’s when air transport staffed by trained medical professionals arrive and their care in the air makes a critical difference.

Flight nurses fulfill that crucial role, making sure patients reach the hospital safely and stabilized on board. In-flight medical care is essentially trauma care in the air and these highly trained professionals handle these emergencies in high-stress environments with limited resources. Many flight nurses come from a military background, where their experience caring for the injured in war-torn battlefield prepares them for the situations they may face treating people in critical situations. Others take to the air from traditional nursing schools or after time spent in hospitals. But like their counterparts in the ER, they perform the routine functions of prepar- ing medical charts and background for the physicians who will treat them. In the often jarring environment of in-flight care, most often in helicop- © ADOBE STOCK ters, flight nurses perform triage, emergency medical care and act as a hospital straight out of college,” said my goal.’’ any emergencies,” she told the maga- calming influence to what can be a Karen Thurmond, a chief flight nurse Thurmond spent the majority of her zine. “We have lifesaving interventions terrifying experience for their patients. for Orlando Health in Florida in a 2012 nursing career providing in-flight care to get somebody breathing again, to Their primary objective is to keep interview for Orlando Magazine. “And and said her time was almost evenly get their heart started. We have an patients alive to arrive while also I saw the flight team and the critical divided between responding to trau- arsenal of medications for pain. keeping a team on the ground aware care nurses, and I enjoyed the high ma situations, such as car accidents, Oftentimes, it’s just putting a pillow of what to expect when the air ambu- adrenaline and the medical services and caring for patients transferring under their knees. We try to work with lance arrives. aspect of what the flight team did. So I from hospital to hospital. patients to find out what’s best for “I started as a clinical tech at the went to nursing school and made that “We have equipment to deal with them.” SALUTE TO NURSES | IN THE SERVICE Modern Military Nurses Since the dawn of the republic, military nurses have played an important role in treating and caring for our nation’s wounded returning from battle. From the Revolutionary War to America’s global war on terrorism, military nurses are on the front lines and true heroes in their own right.

Here are brief profiles of just two modern military nurse legends.

PUBLIC DOMAIN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS PUBLIC DOMAIN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS ARMY LT. GEN. Horoho Trent-Adams PATRICIA HOROHO Born in 1960 on Fort Bragg, N.C., the daughter of an Army officer, Horoho is aircraft. The explosion killed 23 and woman — and first active-duty black lowed her dream to Hampton the first woman and the first nurse to injured more than 100. At the time, major general — to lead the Army University in Virginia, earning her become Army surgeon general and Horoho was head nurse of the fort’s Medical Command. nursing degree with the aid of an commanding general of the Army emergency room and led the care of ROTC scholarship. Following college, Medical Command. the injured. REAR ADM. SYLVIA Trent-Adams served in the Army Nurse Horoho grew up in North Carolina. Horoho went on to serve in TRENT-ADAMS Corps from 1987-1992. She received her nursing degree from Afghanistan, and was honored by the While her tenure was brief, Rear Drawn to public service, Trent- the University of North Carolina at Red Cross for her actions at the Arm. Sylvia Trent-Adams was the first Adams followed her military career by Chapel Hill in 1982 and earned her Pentagon on the fateful date of Sept. female nurse to serve as United States joining the USPHS, where she man- master’s degree in as a clinical trauma 11, 2001. In 2008, Horoho led the Surgeon General. Trent-Adams led the aged the Ryan White HIV/AIDS nurse from the University of 9,000-strong Army Nurse Corps and public health agency as acting surgeon Program. She later became deputy Pittsburgh 10 years later. She earned a the Walter Reed Health Care System in general from April to September 2017, administrator for the Department of second master’s degree from the Maryland. following the dismissal of Vice Adm. Health and Human Service’s HIV/AIDS Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Nominated by President Barack Vivek Murthy, who was relieved of his Bureau. Along the way, Trent-Adams In her long, distinguished career, Obama to become commanding gen- post by the Trump administration. earned her master’s degree in nursing from 1982 to 2016, Horoho treated the eral of the Army Medical Command in But the role as the first practicing and doctorate degree in public policy. injured in the 1994 “Green Ramp” 2011, Horoho led a health care system registered nurse to lead U.S. Public While she did not serve long as the disaster at Fort Bragg, in which an rivaled only the Veterans Health Service was just another country’s top medical officer, she ele- F-16 fighter clipped the wing of a Administration, serving more than 3.5 achievement for Trent-Adams. vated the profile of nursing and con- C-130 transport plane while on a train- million patients. Born in 1965 in Concord, Virginia, tinues to champion the role of nurses. ing exercise. While the pilots ejected Horoho retired in 2016 and was suc- Trent-Adams heard the calling of being “There is so much out there for us as safely, the fighter crashed into an area ceeded by her contemporary in her a nurse early in life, serving as a a profession,” she told nursing gradu- known as the “Green Ramp,” where command by another “first woman,” so-called “candy striper” at a local hos- ates at a University of Maryland com- paratroopers were waiting to board Maj. Gen. Nadja West, the first black pital at the tender age of 12. She fol- mencement ceremony. SALUTE TO NURSES | GENDER ROLES Men Battle Stereotypes in Nursing

Only 9 percent of the esti- mated 4 million nurses in America today are men, according to the Kaiser Family Demand for nurses Foundation. But those numbers are growing, with the has never been number of active male RNs higher. It’s a career, enrolled in graduate or doctor- al programs increasing three- and a calling, that is fold since the turn of the cen- enduring an ongoing tury. So why aren’t more men shortage into the becoming nurses? Studies next decade, if point to both stereotypes and barriers to gender diversity. In estimates are correct. fact, in one recent study That’s why more men attempting to identify the few numbers of men in nursing, 70 are being encouraged percent of respondents cited to enter a field stereotypes as a major challenge. traditionally But in this new era, those dominated by challenges are beginning to change. women. “Patients are much more receptive to health care pro- viders of similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and that may well translate to gender as well,” said Vernell DeWitty, deputy director of New Careers in Nursing, a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in an article on the foundation’s website. “The shortage of the future © ADOBE STOCK will likely not be solved unless men are part of the equation,” added male nurse William T. nursing typically pursue overall men are more inclined women. Jorge Gitler, an oncology nurse Lecher, president of the advanced degrees and often to pursue careers as nurses in All the data and statistics manager, told The New York American Assembly for Men in out-earn their female counter- hospitals. Nearly 70 percent of point toward a challenging Times in an article focused on Nursing, in the same article. parts. That has contributed to male RNs worked in hospitals, and lucrative career for men in men who had left other careers “We really have to figure out the 11 percent rise in male as opposed to 61 percent of nursing, where average sala- to pursue nursing. “The pay is how to provide more gender nurses in the past few years, female RNs in 2015. The study ries top $60,000. Now is an great, the opportunities are inclusion and balance in the according to statistics collect- said male nurses may be more excellent time for men to con- endless and you end up going nursing workforce.” ed by Montana State drawn to the types of care — sider careers in nursing — and home every day knowing that Similar studies show men University. emergency departments and to get over the stigma. you did something very posi- who are drawn to a career in That data also shows that critical care units — than “Forget about the stigma,” tive for someone else.” SALUTE TO NURSES | IN MEDIA Nurse Stereotypes Change What we see on TV where nurses serve patients who may not otherwise come and in movies shapes in contact with a healthcare our impressions provider. Nurses have a long history about the occupations of pioneering heroes, from actors portray in film Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, and on television. to Clara Barton and Mary No less is true than Breckinridge. Fortunately, the image of the nurse in TV, the representation movies and in the media is of nurses in popular improving. More recently, movie nurses media. are “intelligent, strong, and passionate characters,” Perhaps among the most Stanley says. famous portrayals is that of An example is “Nurse Loretta Switt as Maj. Margaret Jackie.” At first condemned by Houlihan in the hit 1970s and nursing organizations for her ‘80s TV show “M*A*S*H.” drug abuse, the Truth About Another is Louise Fletcher’s Nursing says, “Jackie turned performance as Nurse out to be arguably the stron- Ratched in the 1975 film, gest and the most skilled “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nurse ever depicted on serial Nest.” U.S. television.” As it devel- Both these portrayals oped, “Nurse Jackie” was underscore extreme stereo- commended for standing up types — “Hot Lips” Houlihan to organizations that threat- is a romantic/sexual interest ened safe and equitable care, of several characters at a sur- recalls Canadian nurse Lori gical hospital during the Campbell. Korean War and Ratched is © ADOBE STOCK Jada Pinkett Smith’s por- presented as a cold-hearted movies. He found that the value of nursing. Its mis- trayal of Christina Hawthorne tyrant at state mental hospital “Nurses and the nursing pro- sion is to foster a better in “HawthoRNe” featured a — but neither is representa- fession are frequently por- understanding that nurses are nurse as its main character. As tive of the real-life world of trayed negatively or stereo- autonomous, college-educat- the chief nursing officer at nurses. typically in the media, with ed science professionals to Richmond Trinity Hospital, Of course, these characters nurses often being portrayed strengthen nursing care, edu- Hawthorne presented a posi- are presented for entertain- as feminine and caring but cation and research, allowing tive portrayal of nursing, ment purposes but those not as leaders or professionals nurses to save more lives. advocating for her patients images have real impact on capable of autonomous prac- Of course, the “truth about and staff. viewers. In “Celluloid Angels: tice.” nursing” is that nurses save “These are vital messages to

A Research Study of Nurses in PUBLIC DOMAIN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS To combat these portrayals, lives and work long, hard increase public understand- Feature Films, 1900-2007,” the Baltimore-based group hours and make many sacri- ing of nursing and funding for author David Stanley, a nurse Technology, reviewed more the Truth About Nursing seeks fices to provide healing and nursing practice, education, and lecturer at Australia’s than a century of nurses as to challenge stereotypes and care at hospitals, clinics and research and residencies,” the Curtin University of predominant characters in to educate the world about in a variety of environments Truth About Nursing reports. SALUTE TO NURSES | ATTIRE The Evolution of Scrubs plier that has been in business Scrubs have long since 1929. The company since entered lexicon claims to have created “the world’s first fashion scrubs” in and moved from 1965, and also makes uni- uniforms for nurses, forms for such fast-food chains as McDonald’s and doctors and medical Taco Bell, according to an arti- staff, to being cle in The New York Times. But Barco also has a close embraced as a true connection to the entertain- mode of fashion. ment world, supplying scrubs for a range of television and movies for decades, the article Because they allow freedom notes. of movement and comfort to It’s biggest hit is a line in hard-working medical profes- partnership with the popular, sionals, the garments have long-running medical drama, become as popular as warm- “Grey’s Anatomy.” The show up suits for those in and out — and the scrubs — proved so of the field. successful that Barco turned Scrubs were born of neces- from making scrubs for fic- sity and at first were worn by tional TV shows to a line physicians which provided based on that show for real- ease of movement and sani- world medical wear, the Times tary dress in operating rooms article reported. that could be quickly disposed On their website, Barco fea- of. According to an article on tures no fewer than five signa- dressamed.com, nurses once ture “Grey’s Anatomy” lines of wore long, bulky gowns for scrubs for women and men protection but were prone to made from soft, stretchable transmutation diseases. fabric that “drapes elegantly Modern scrubs were pio- and conveys a polished pro- neered by Dr. William Hasted, fessional image.” who also developed the first But Barco is not alone in pair of latex gloves. But it took producing fashion-forward decades before what we now scrubs. Several companies, recognize as scrubs spread including Med Couture, from operating-room wear to Jaanuu and Cherokee are the de facto uniform of almost changing the look of medical every hospital medical staffer. uniforms, introducing bold While most medical facili- colors, patterns and prints. ties provide the drab green or As an article on blue scrubs most are familiar WorkingNurse.com pointed with, those in the medical © ADOBE STOCK out,” looking good makes you field have sought out an even- feel good, and feeling good more comfortable and fash- It’s no mistake that people feels good, wears well and responded. makes you perform your job ion-forward look and uniform who wear any sort of uniform expresses some individuality. Among them is Barco, a even better. And that’s never companies have responded. want to invest in a look that And manufacturers have California-based uniform sup- out of style.”