Share These 100 Uplifting Nurse Quotes To Show Appreciation During National Nurses Week and Beyond
Nurses are some of the most amazing, caring people you'll ever meet, and now, more than ever, hard-working nurses deserve a round of applause. And right now, we are celebrating nurses during National Nurses Week (May 6-12). Show your support and appreciation by sharing nurse quotes in their honor, today and every day of the year.From funny nurse quotes to inspirational nurse quotes, this big list of the best nursing quotes celebrates our everyday heroes and encourages them to keep pushing forward.Send these encouraging quotes about nurses to any nurse you may know, if you want to lift his or her spirits during a tough week at work, or just because. And if you don't know a nurse personally, sharing one of these nurse quotes is a way to show your appreciation for all the people who are out there working long shifts, with far too few resources, to care for patients each and every day.Here are 100 of the quotes that honor our frontline heroes.Related:
1. 'Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.' —Dag Hammarskjold2. 'America's nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.' — Barack Obama3. "The doctors may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable. — Jodi Picoult4. 'When a person decides to become a nurse, they make the most important decision of their lives. They choose to dedicate themselves to the care of others.' — Margaret Harvey5. 'Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen every day.' – H. Jackson Brown Jr.6. "As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.' — Maya Angelou7. 'To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; that is to be a nurse.' — Rawsi Williams8. 'Where there is love there is life.' — Mahatma GandhiRelated: Funny Nurse Memes
9.'And what nursing has to do in either case is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.' — Florence Nightingale10. 'Knowing is better than wondering, waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worse, beats the hell out of never trying.' — Grey's Anatomy11. 'The only way to do great work is to love what you do.' — Steve Jobs12. "Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness." ― Harold Kushner13. 'Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription.' — Val Saintsbury14. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.' — Winston Churchill15. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.' Mahatma Gandhi16. 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.' — Margaret Mead17. 'From caring comes courage.' — Lao Tzu18. 'A nurse is compassion in scrubs.' – Lexie Saige19. 'Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation' — Aristotle20. 'Kindness can transform someone's dark moment with a blaze of light. You'll never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today.' ― Amy Leigh Mercree21. 'The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.' — William Osler22. 'Nursing encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken.' — Myrtle Aydelotte23. 'For the sick, it is important to have the best.' — Florence Nightingale24. "No matter how difficult the days may get, don't forget the reason you became a nurse.' — Unknown25. 'Nurses are the heart of healthcare.' — Donna Wilk CardilloRelated:
26. 'There are only four kinds of people in the world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.' — Rosalyn Carter27. 'Some days there won't be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.' — Emory Austin28. "No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." — Aesop29. 'Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.' – Judy Blume30. "A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside." ― Denis WaitleyRelated: Best Shoes for Nurses31. "Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.' — Charles Dickens32. 'It is not enough to be compassionate— you must act.' — The Dalai Lama33. 'Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.' — Mother Teresa34. 'We won't always know whose lives we touched and made better for our having cared, because actions can sometimes have unforeseen ramifications. What's important is that you do care and you act.' — Charlotte Lunsford35. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." — Theodore Roosevelt36. 'Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its strengths.' — Corrie Ten Boom37. 'Save one life and you're a hero, save one hundred lives and you're a nurse.' — Unknown38. 'Remember: Nurses are like icebergs. At any one time, you are only seeing what they are actually doing.' — Ian Miller39. 'As nurses we know suffering. We are full aware of how precious each moment of life is.' – Patricia Bratianu40. 'Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.' — Mother Teresa
41. 'The character of a nurse is just as important as the knowledge she possesses.' — Carolyn Jarvis
42. 'A nurse will always give us hope—an angel with a stethoscope.' — Terri Guillemets
43. 'What you do makes a difference. And you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.' – Jane Goodall
44. 'Caring is the essence of nursing.' — Jean Watson
45. 'Being a nurse means to hold all your own tears and start drawing smiles on people's faces.' — Dana Basem
46. "Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." — William James
47. 'Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the joy, every day, while we are 'just doing our jobs.'' — Christine Belle
48. "Care is a state in which something does matter; it is the source of human tenderness." ― Rollo May
49.'Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.' — Leo Buscaglia
50. 'Whether a person is male or female, a nurse is a nurse.' — Gary Veale
51. 'Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn't know possible.' ― Tia Walker
52. 'Nursing is great for so many reasons, but there is one reason that means more than any poll results, amount of money, or job security: Nurses make a difference.' — Brittany Wilson,
53. 'It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing.' — Mother Teresa
54. "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." — St. Francis of Assisi
55. 'Nurses are a unique kind. They have this insatiable need to care for others, which is both their greatest strength and fatal flaw.' — Jean Watson
56. 'One person caring about another represents life's greatest value.' — Jim Rohn
57. "Rejoice in your work; never lose sight of the nursing leader you are now and the nursing leader you will become.' — Sue Fitzsimons
58. 'Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.' — Mark Twain
59. 'Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible'!' — Audrey Hepburn
60. 'Be determined to handle any challenge in a way that will make you grow.' — Les Brown
61. 'Diagnosis is not the end, but the beginning of practice.' — Martin H. Fischer
62. 'Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy…nurses are rarely short on caring.' — Sharon Hudacek
63. 'Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital.' – Carrie Latet
64. 'You really can change the world if you care enough.' — Marian Wright Edelman
65. 'Nurses: one of the few blessings of being ill.' — Sara Moss-Wolfe
66. 'The simple act of caring is heroic.' — Edward Albert
67. 'Every nurse was drawn to nursing because of a desire to care, to serve, or to help.' — Christina Feist-Heilmeier
68. "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.' — Shakespeare
69. 'I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.' — Pablo Casals
70. 'Always thank your nurse! Sometimes they're the only one between you and a hearse.' — Warren Beaty
71. 'Nursing is not for the faint of heart nor the empty of heart.' – Unknown
72. 'Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.' — Dale Carnegie
73. 'I attribute my success to this—I never gave or took any excuse.' — Florence Nightingale
74. 'Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestation of strength and resolution.' — Kahlil Gibran
75. 'It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.' — Stephen Ambrose
76. 'Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.' — Anthony J. D'Angelo
77. 'You treat a disease; you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you win—no matter the outcome.' – Patch Adams
78. 'There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.' — Albert Einstein
79. 'I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.' — Clara Barton
80. "Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
81. 'Nursing is not for everyone. It takes a very strong, intelligent, and compassionate person to take on the ills of the world with passion and purpose and work to maintain the health and well-being of the planet.' — Donna Wilk Cardillo
82. "One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested." — E.M. Forster
83. 'Every nurse is an angel with a key for healthy community! All in caring for patients is part of nursing soul!' — Alexsandar Radunovic
84. 'Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.' – Booker T. Washington
85. "To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.' — Ralph Waldo Emerson
86. 'Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a Battle.' — Plato
87. "Nurses are angels in comfortable shoes.' — Unknown
88. 'Nurses are there when the last breath is taken, and nurses are there when the first breath is taken. Although it is more enjoyable to celebrate the birth, it is just as important to comfort in death.' — Christine Bell
89. 'Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through you. Always be kinder than necessary.' ― Germany Kent
90. 'Doing a little bit of good here and there makes everything a little bit better, everywhere.' ― Richie Norton
91. 'I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.' — Art Williams
92. 'You can either close your eyes to the pain in life or you can open them, and ease the pain for everyone else.' ― Anthony T. Hincks
93. 'My caregiver mantra is to remember: The only control you have is over the changes you choose to make.' — Nancy L. Kriseman
94. 'When you are a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.' — Unknown
95. 'By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.' — Robert A. Heinlein
96. 'Nurses serve their patients in the most important capacities. We know that they serve as our first lines of communication when something goes wrong or when we are concerned about health.' — Lois Capps
97. 'There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.' — Michel de Montaigne
98. 'Because nurses have the most direct patient care, they have much influence on serious treatment decisions. It is a very high-stakes job.' — Judy Evans
99. 'Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on Earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.' — Vincent Van Gogh
100. 'I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.' — E.E.Hale
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CNN
44 minutes ago
- CNN
US foreign aid cuts threaten decades of progress on driving down malaria
Cuts to US-funded malaria programs are adding to a host of issues confronting Congolese mother Mwayuma Idi Feza, whose city, Goma, is at the center of the country's intensifying conflict and run by a vicious militia. 'I have a child who is sick. He has had malaria for a week and a few days now,' Feza, 36, told CNN of her 1-year-old son, whose fever she suspects is caused by the mosquito-borne illness. She is also experiencing symptoms of the disease, she said. 'I'm feeling cold. I feel bitterness in my mouth.' The single mother is out of work and said she can barely afford food, much less malaria treatment for her and her baby. Malaria is a preventable and curable disease, but it still claims hundreds of thousands of lives around the world each year. Infants, children under five and pregnant women are most likely to die from a malaria infection. It's a leading cause of death in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which bears the world's second-highest malaria burden after Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2022, some 24,000 people were estimated to have died of the disease in the central African nation. More than half those deaths were of children under 5. Since the Trump administration started slashing foreign aid early this year, an estimated 36% of US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding for malaria programs has been cut, according to the Center for Global Development, a DC-based think tank. But the true level of aid cuts remains uncertain. In the DRC, that money funded the supply of antimalarials to 'many health zones' across the country, 'including intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women,' according to Michel Itabu, a former spokesperson for the country's National Malaria Control Program (PNLP), referring to a WHO-recommended program in areas where malaria is endemic. 'The PNLP is already feeling the effects' of the funding cuts, Itabu told CNN. Such preventive programs might have protected Idi Feza and her baby son – instead, if infected, they are both at risk of serious illness or even death. The US government has long been the largest donor to global efforts to combat malaria. For decades, USAID spearheaded a program called the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) to drive down mortality and eliminate malaria in 30 of the hardest-hit nations, most of which are in Africa. Launched by George W. Bush in 2005, the program helped reduce malaria deaths by more than 60% – saving millions of lives. CNN spoke to several people who previously worked on the initiative but were recently laid off amid Trump's dismantling of USAID. Most PMI staff have been let go or had their work halted by stop-work orders, and the Trump administration's proposed budget called for a 47% cut to the program. 'One of the reasons that we don't have malaria in the US is because we fund and track malaria worldwide, for global health security.' Former USAID contractor, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals Every aid worker who spoke to CNN emphasized that people would die in the short term as a result of the disruption to malaria prevention and treatment efforts. Longer term, they said the funding cuts would destroy years of American progress in driving down the prevalence and severity of the disease. US-backed surveillance systems that were once the backbone of efforts to monitor malaria and other disease outbreaks around the world have also been cut, former US government workers told CNN, underscoring long-term concerns. 'One of the reasons that we don't have malaria in the US is because we fund and track malaria worldwide, for global health security,' one former USAID contractor told CNN in February, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals. She warned that locally acquired malaria cases, like Florida experienced in 2023, could become more common 'if we're not funding driving down the parasite elsewhere.' Aid workers and nonprofits have repeatedly made the case that malaria programs and US disease monitoring make America 'safer, stronger and more prosperous,' which was Secretary of State Marco Rubio's stated framework for assessing US foreign assistance. For example, USAID and the US military have long invested in malaria vaccine research to both reduce the global disease burden and protect US soldiers serving abroad. Spencer Knoll, US policy and advocacy director at the nonprofit Malaria No More, said in testimony to the US House Appropriations Subcommittee in April that 'the world's most dangerous infectious diseases – including Ebola, Marburg, and pandemic influenza – often present first as fevers, and malaria detection programs can stop outbreaks in their tracks.' The nonprofit also argued that US assistance prevents other countries like China and Iran from making further inroads in Africa in terms of soft power. 'Everything that comes from USAID… was very intentionally branded, with this logo that says 'from the American people.' People know where it was coming from,' said former PMI contractor Annē Linn, who lost her job in January. 'When all of a sudden everything stops, that just tears down trust – not just from our government to other governments, but within countries' own health systems.' Between 2010 and 2023, the US contributed more than one-third of the world's malaria financing, according to WHO. As of last year, the US was also the largest contributor to the Global Fund, which works to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It's unclear what the future level of US funding for the independent, public-private program will be, following the Trump administration's proposal to halve US matching contributions. The Trump administration's funding cuts 'could reverse decades of progress earned, in part, through longstanding investments from the United States of America and other global partners,' WHO warned in a statement earlier this year. 'Although funding for some USA-supported malaria programs have been reinstated, the disruptions have left critical gaps.' The US State Department did not respond to questions from CNN about the stop-work orders and where specifically budget cuts to the PMI would be felt. Former aid workers emphasized concerns about lack of investment to tackle several global threats related to malaria, including drug resistance, increasingly insecticide-resistant mosquitoes and new, invasive types of mosquitoes that are moving into urban areas with high populations. 'The timing for all of this couldn't be worse. Malaria is seasonal, and so having interruptions during times of seasonality sets us back significantly,' said Nathaniel Moller, formerly a senior innovation adviser at the PMI, whose job was cut in January. He warned that with less funding for measures like bed nets and preventative medicine, the baseline of cases will rise this year, enabling further spread of the disease down the road. 'You missed that window, and you can't just go back to that initial baseline… it's going to go up,' Moller said, noting that the rainy season is already underway in parts of east, central and southern Africa. 'We risk losing years of investments and seeing the caseload increase significantly.' That bad timing is particularly evident in Malawi, where recent flooding and cyclones have driven up malaria infections, the country's National Malaria Control Manager Lumbani Munthali told CNN. He added that cuts to USAID funding for malaria interventions have put the country in 'a difficult situation' because 'it's not easy to close the gaps that have been created.' More than 2,000 people died of malaria in Malawi last year. Some 9 million were infected. 'Malawi has made significant progress in reducing malaria deaths because of the technical and financial support from the US government,' Munthali said. That funding went towards procuring millions of malaria tests kits annually and providing insecticide-treated bed nets and antimalarial medication for pregnant women and nursing mothers. 'We are trying to close those gaps but may not close them completely,' Munthali said, as Malawi adjusts to the sharp drop-off in US foreign aid. About 64% of Malawi's USAID funding has been cut across all programs, according to the Center for Global Development's analysis. In 2023, the most recent year for which PMI figures are available, Malawi received $24 million for its fight against malaria. It's not yet clear exactly how much it will lose this year, Munthali said. Cuts to other areas of US foreign aid, like malnutrition programs, will have overlapping effects in Africa, aid workers also warned. 'Kids that are acutely malnourished will be more vulnerable to other diseases,' like measles, cholera and malaria, according to Nicolas Mouly, an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who works in northwest Nigeria. He said funding gaps for malnutrition programs that were already present in 2024 have deepened significantly this year. Malaria infection can also lead to malnutrition, fueling what MSF has called 'a vicious cycle.' Nigeria's health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, told CNN that the government has mobilized domestic funding for its health sector, including $200 million recently approved by parliament to lessen the effects of losing USAID funding. 'When the change in US government occurred and the policy was made, we considered it as another opportunity for reset and for us to increase our domestic funding so that we can meet the responsibility of the health of our population,' he said. 'At the end of the day, the responsibility of the health of Nigerians is on the Nigerian government. It is never a primary responsibility of the US government.' MSF doesn't rely on US government funding, but the organization said its programs have been burdened with additional patients following US cuts to other humanitarian actors in the region. 'We won't have the capacity to treat all of them,' Mouly said. Aid organizations prepare for the annual peak of malnutrition – when fall harvests have yet to arrive and rainy seasons have increased malaria cases – by stockpiling ready-to-use therapeutic food sachets. But for this year's lean season, Mouly said there is 'uncertainty' about their availability. 'We can expect a very critical situation,' Mouly said, emphasizing that children will die as a result. 'We've not seen anything like this in terms of disruption of global aid. It's very difficult.' Lauren Kent reported and wrote from London. Nimi Princewill reported from Abuja, Nigeria.
Medscape
an hour ago
- Medscape
Napping Patterns Tied to All-Cause Mortality Risk
SEATTLE — Timing, duration, and variability of daytime napping are associated with an increased risk for mortality in middle- to older-aged adults, new research showed. An analysis of UK Biobank data, which included more than 86,000 non-shift workers, showed that longer naps, greater variability in daytime napping duration, and higher percentages of naps around noon and in the early afternoon are associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality. 'Our study fills a gap in knowledge by showing that it's not just whether someone naps but how long, how variable, and when they nap may be meaningful indicators of future health risk,' lead investigator Chenlu Gao, PhD, with the Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Medscape Medical News . 'However, it's important to emphasize that these are associations. Because the design of this study is observational, we cannot determine whether napping patterns cause higher mortality risk or simply reflect underlying health conditions,' Gao cautioned. The findings will be presented on June 11 at SLEEP 2025. An Early Indicator of Declining Health? 'While many studies have examined the links between sleep and mortality, they have largely focused on nighttime sleep, often overlooking daytime sleep. However, napping is an important component of the 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and may carry its own health implications,' Gao explained. For the study, the researchers examined whether actigraphy-measured objective daytime napping behaviors predict all-cause mortality in 86,565 non-shift workers. The cohort had a mean age of 63 years at baseline, and 57% were women. They were monitored by actigraphy for 7 days, and daytime napping was defined as sleep between 9 AM and 7 PM. Median nap duration was 0.40 h/d, with 34% of naps taken between 9 and 11 AM, 10% between 11 AM and 1 PM, 14% between 1 and 3 PM, 19% between 3 and 5 PM, and 22% between 5 and 7 PM. During a follow-up period of up to 11 years, 5189 (6.0%) participants died. Overall, as individuals aged, naps tended to become longer and more irregular, with timing shifting toward the afternoon. After adjusting for potential confounders, including demographics, BMI, smoking, alcohol use, and nighttime sleep duration, longer nap duration was associated with an increased risk for mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.20 for 1 SD; P < .0001). Greater intraindividual variability (HR, 1.14 for 1 SD; P < .0001) and a higher percentage of naps between 11 AM and 1 PM (HR, 1.07 for 1 SD; P = .0005) and between 1 and 3 PM (HR, 1.07 for 1 SD; P = .0002) were also associated with an increased risk for mortality. 'These findings highlight the potential importance of considering napping behaviors in risk stratification of mortality in middle- to older-aged adults,' the researchers noted in their abstract. 'Longer or more irregular naps may reflect poor nighttime sleep, circadian rhythm disruption, or underlying health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, depression, or early neurodegenerative changes. Our findings suggest that certain patterns of napping could serve as early indicators of declining health,' said Gao. However, the researchers did not specifically test these mechanisms in this study, and further research is needed to clarify the biological pathways underlying these associations, Gao cautioned. Ask About Napping Commenting on the research for Medscape Medical News , James A. Rowley, MD, professor of medicine and program director, Sleep Medicine Fellowship, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said the 'major take-home message is that if physicians ask about a patient's sleep habits, they should also be asking about napping, not just the nocturnal sleep period. In other words, physicians should be asking their patients, 'do you nap during the day?'' 'One cannot ignore daytime napping and an evaluation for the etiology of daytime napping is important,' said Rowley. Rowley noted that the key questions to consider include whether the patient is obtaining sufficient nocturnal sleep. Could an underlying sleep disorder — such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome — be contributing? Might another medical condition, such as chronic heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, be disrupting nighttime sleep and prompting daytime napping?
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Nutrition program for Americans on food stamps at risk in GOP bill
BALTIMORE — A group of kindergartners sat attentively in a bright elementary school, ready to learn the keys to living a healthy life. One of the four main pillars, nutrition educator Karen Turner told them, was to drink lots of water. 'What about Pepsi?' Turner asked. 'No!' the kids screamed. 'What about Capri Sun?'
