National Nurses Day was May 6 and National Nurses Week ends May 12, which is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Nurse Nightingale, who came to prominence while serving as a British manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, is the founder of modern nursing and it’s appropriate that on her birthday we celebrate the nursing heroism in our lives.

Last week, I talked with at least a dozen physicians, and not one could do his or her job, day in and day out, without the nurse or nurses who stand next to them. Some of the physicians on the Vein Therapy News (VTN)  Editorial Advisory Board regularly praise the nurses in their lives and working in their vein practices – such as Cassi White, RDMS, at Advanced Surgical Concepts in Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Peggy Bush, MSN, ACNS-BC, at Vein Med Consultants and Water’s Edge Dermatology in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Every day, compassionate and dedicated nurses do the preparation for and the follow-up necessary to promote better patient care. I know this from a personal as well as a professional viewpoint. Before I get my 10 minutes with my own physician, a good nurse does a thorough triage so the conversation with the doctor is more meaningful and productive with less time spent looking at the computer and more time looking at and listening to me. And after my doctor leaves the room, the nurse answers all the questions I meant to ask Doc and forgot — and he — or sometimes she — does it all with kindness, compassion and care.

Everyone works hard in small and large practices throughout our phlebology community, but nurses are always short on time and wear many hats. The dedication and sacrifice of nurses, who often provide leadership that keeps the practice running smoothly, is always overworked and often overlooked by a physician focused on healing; and unappreciated by patients who may be having the worse day of their life.

As one doctor said last week, her nurses provide extraordinary care to every patient, every time whether the nurse is having a good day or not, or is feeling great or suffering from pain.

But the nurses who add to my personal health and those who sometimes help with getting information for articles in VTN may not read this message on May 6 or May 12 or not even until June  when their copy of VTN arrives in the mailbox because with a bimonthly print schedule, I would had to have had the forethought to extend my thanks for your compassion and care way back on March 6 to get it in the May print issue – and I just don’t think that far in advance very often anymore. Maybe VTN (or its editor) needs its own nurse.

Whenever you read this – whether it is in May on the website or in June when it arrives in the mail – my wish is that someone much more important to you than me  regularly tells you “Thank YOU” for selflessly serving the patients who come in with problems related to their veins; “thank YOU” for staying late to support the doctor, the patients and their families; and “thank YOU” for coming in early to get things ready for the day. Thank YOU for your crucial, critical and essential service, and Happy Nurses Week!

–Larry Storer