This is National Nurses Week in Arkansas, and today I’d like to talk about how the pandemic has highlighted the value of our nurses and about the laws the General Assembly passed this year that allow nurses to offer more services.
Over the past year, nurses have risked their health to care for COVID patients in hospitals, private homes, nursing homes, and prisons and jails.
Susie Marks, executive director of the Arkansas Nurses Association, says that many nurses, especially bedside nurses, have worked in settings they never thought they’d work in.
Some Arkansas nurses served in COVID hot spots in New York, Texas, and Louisiana. Nurses don’t run from danger, Ms. Marks said, they run towards it. Those who worked in other places returned to Arkansas with innovative solutions for patient care and to minimize risk to health care workers.
Registered nurses are the largest health care profession in the United States, and 60,000 of them work in Arkansas. The theme for this year’s National Nurses Week is “You Make a Difference,” a nod to the unparalleled care and service they have provided during the pandemic.
Professional nursing is an indispensable link in the care of hospitalized patients, and the demand for registered nurses is growing as Baby Boomers age, and as the quality of health care and medicine helps Americans live longer than ever.
The cost-effective safe and high-quality health care services that registered nurses provide will play an ever-more important role in our health care delivery system.