10-05-2025
Saying thank you to nurses for National Nurses Week
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — National Nurses Week is meant to highlight the contributions of nurses, focus on their positive impact, and promote the profession. And all across Central Illinois, people are showing their gratitude.
At Carle Health in Peoria, they brought therapy dogs and food to celebrate the week. Kami Colvin has been a nurse for 17 years and said it's all about bringing the best care to her patients.
'Our patients are telling us that they appreciate the care and being able to see them come in and have a significant need and progress with our arms wrapped right around them and get ready and go home, and then be with their family. That's really the best thing in health care that you could ask for as a nurse,' said Colvin.
This year's theme is 'the power of nursing'. Currently, there is a nationwide nursing shortage, but at Bradley University, more than 300 students are studying to become nurses.
'The very large retirement of the baby boomers, nurses who have been in the hospital for 20 or 30 years, are retiring, and we have a huge deficit of nurses. So with graduating nurses, it's really important that we try and get them exposure to the hospital as soon as we can,' said Dr. Rachel Borton with Bradley University.
She went on to talk about how nurses are the backbone of hospitals.
'The nurse is the one who's with the patient the longest. So the providers are coming in. They're responsible for many times hundreds of patients, and they have a very finite amount of time that they can spend with the patient, whereas the nurse is there for the entire shift and many times maybe three shifts a week with the same patient. So they know they're patient,' she said.
The week is also meant to honor Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
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