Fun Holiday – National School Nurse Day

The unofficial holiday was created in 1972 by the National Association of School Nurses, based in the United States. The day aims to recognize school nurses and acknowledge their role in the educational setting.

Ensure Well-Being of Children

School nurses are nursing practitioners usually affiliated with a school or an educational institution. School nurses are one of the first lines of medical professionals to ensure the health and mental well-being of school going children and young adults. They are also responsible for monitoring that children in schools are achieving their developmental milestones as well as ensuring that their lives outside the school are safe and healthy.

National Nurse Week

National School Nurse Day, also known as School Nurse Day, is celebrated during National Nurse Week, which runs annually from May 6 to May 12. May 6 is celebrated as National Nurses Day, while May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale is celebrated worldwide as International Nurses Day.

How to Celebrate?

• Thank your school nurse for taking care of you.
• Learn more about what school nurses do.
• If you have school-going children, help your children make thank you gifts or write thank you notes to their school nurse.

Did You Know…

...that Florence Nightingale is thought to be responsible for creating the foundation for modern day nursing? Known as The Lady With the Lamp, she opened the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery in 1860, which was the world's first secular nursing school and remains one of the world's oldest schools to be still operational.