CELEBRATING NURSING WEEK
What is Nursing Week all about?
National Nursing Week in Canada takes place every year to celebrate nurses and the work they do. This year, it will take place May 9th to 15th. The date is set to coincide l with International Nurses Day, which is celebrated on May 12th – Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
Each year Nursing Week has a theme
A theme for Nursing Week is established each year. For 2022, the theme is #WeAnswerTheCall. It was designed to acknowledge the work of the many, many thousands of Canadian nurses and recognize the commitment and courage they demonstrate every day caring for people in hospitals and communities across Canada.
The 2022 theme also draws attention to the shortage of nurses in Canada. With an aging nursing workforce, and growing demands for more nurses to support expanding health care services, a shortage of almost 60,000 full-time equivalent nurses is anticipated by 2023 .
To address the need for more nurses in BC, the BC Government has announced that 602 new seats in post-secondary nursing programs will be added to the existing post-secondary nursing seats in BC. Clearly, the BC Government is “#AnsweringTheCall.”
RNFBC’s Role in Nursing Week
RNFBC was established in 1979, “to advance nursing practice and education”. It has done so by providing bursaries to nursing students resident in BC to offset nursing education costs. To meet its goals, the RNFBC (volunteer) Directors and members (many of whom are or were nurses) have focused on building needed resources to support students. These efforts have allowed RNFBC to provide bursaries to more than 200 nurses enrolled in educational programs in 2021 – and it aims to do even more to meet increasing requests.
Growing demands have made RNFBC very aware of the need to support even more nurses – Licensed Practical Nurses, Psychiatric Nurses, Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners – with their education programs. Additional educational support will help to build a strong nursing workforce that will, in turn, help to sustain BC’s health care system. The Directors and members of RNFBC are ready to #AnswerTheCall
We are counting on support from our past, current and future donors and members to help meet our goal too. Resources to significantly increase the number of BC nurses engaged in education in the coming years are much needed. By working together, we will show that we all recognize the value of nurses and that we all – including our donors – are willing to #AnswerTheCall!