It's National Nurses Week: Thank a Nurse Today

You really can't say enough good things about nurses. Like Mom and apple pie (is it coincidence Mother's Day and National Nurses Week are always close on the calendar?), celebrating nurses and nursing professionals for their service to others doesn't come close to the emotional truth of their value to us, as Bryan's post from last year suggests.

Nursing as a profession is relatively recent. Florence Nightingale first made headlines just 150 years ago for her work tending wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. Check out her resume.

Since then, nursing has become a respected and increasingly complex and demanding career choice, predominantly but not exclusively for women, with more than 2.4 million nurses on the job in the US now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job growth is forecast to grow to nearly 3 million in five years.

But despite the demand, various sources estimate the shortage of trained nursing professionals to be as much as 1 million by 2012, thanks to retirements and limited training capacity for new nurses, in part due to a shortage of nursing school faculty.

There's no shortage of need for thanks. So, if you haven't thanked a nurse lately, you can send one an e-card, courtesy of the American Nurses Association. And if a career in nursing is a possibility for you or someone you know, check out these resources:

• "Jump-Start Your Nursing Career" (special section)
• "Refresher Programs Help Nurses Return to Work"
• "Prepare for Your Career"
• Poll: Should the BSN be the minimum level of education required to be a nurse?
• Monster's Nursing message board in Healthcare Careers 

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