Today, 12 May 2020 – the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth – is International Nurses Day celebrating the many contributions nurses make to society in the UK and around the world.
This year is particularly special being Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday which has inspired the World Health Organisation to make 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
To mark the occasion, our own nursing students and staff have released a video in which they share their views on the true value of nurses in the world today.
Of course our university has a 60-year legacy of teaching, training and developing nurses with 643 nursing students currently enrolled on our pre-registration, undergraduate and postgraduate nursing degrees and diplomas. Many of these students and staff are now working directly with patients who are suffering – and recovering – from COVID-19 making this year even more poignant.
“At this time of great turbulence and unprecedented health care need, we are witnessing now more than ever the value of modern nursing,” say Professor Jane Ball and Dr Julie Cullen from the School of Health Sciences. “It is this that we want to celebrate today, as we witness the calm professionalism of colleagues and students in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Florence Nightingale shone the light on the core ‘ingredients’ of nursing and we believe we are witnessing the same in our student nurses responding to COVID-19.”
