Nurses

May 6, 2008

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Profile America — Tuesday, May 6th. Today is National Nurses Day — kicking off a week honoring the outstanding efforts of nurses in helping to keep Americans among the healthiest people in the world. The observance ends next Monday, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who established the world’s first nursing school in England in the 19th century. In the U.S., there were some 12,000 registered nurses by 1900. Today, that figure is nearly 2.5 million. As their numbers have grown, so have nurses’ responsibilities, keeping up with increasingly complex medical technology. They not only work in the nation’s 5,700 hospitals, but are on duty in more than 16,000 nursing homes across the country. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2008, p. 257
Historical Statistics of the United States:  Colonial Times to 1970, p. 140
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 154, 163, 183
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html