As we celebrate Nurses week and International Nurses Day on May 12th, I wanted to take a moment to recognize, honor, and thank our outstanding nurses at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
The nurses who choose to work in public health are a special group of people that seek to care for not just one client, not just one family, but a whole community. Looking through a health equity lens with their focus on illness and injury prevention, health protection, and health promotion, we may not see the immediate results of their work, but it happens every day.
We may never know:
- The new moms who would not have managed to care safely and successfully for their newborns if they had not provided education, support, and care.
- The teenagers who talked to their parents about their depression because they provided education and resources to their schools.
- The children who didn’t contract Pertussis, Measles or Chickenpox, because they provided education, vaccine screening, and immunization.
- The vulnerable people living in congregate living environments that didn’t contract a life-threatening illness due to their case and contact management and outbreak surveillance.
- The individuals whose lives were saved due to the education and distribution of naloxone which they provided.
Nurses may never know all those they have touched and the difference they’ve made to so many lives, but it’s real, it’s important, and it’s truly recognized and appreciated.
The Canadian Nurses Association theme this year, for Nurses Week, is ‘Our Nurses, Our Future’. I want to sincerely thank all our nurses in Windsor-Essex for your commitment and professionalism as you continue to provide excellent care to our Windsor-Essex community into the future.
I’m very proud to stand along side you in this important work.
Happy Nurses Week!
Linda Watson
Chief Nursing Officer
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit