Evergreen Honors Our Nurses During National Nurses Week

I missed my chance to attend and publicly thank our community nurses last week during the Douglas County Board of Commissioners' Proclamation of National Nurses Week. Last-minute staffing needs changed my plans to attend. Evergreen nurses were busy meeting their professional obligations at our clinics, so my target audience wouldn't have heard my thank-you remarks anyway. However, it is important to honor our Evergreen nurses and staff who have embraced their roles in caring for our patients.

The theme put forth this year by the American Nurses Association was “The Power of Nurses”, which I suppose is fitting in many ways. However, I was struck by the humble demeanor of the mother of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. She left her legacy in public health and nursing science by challenging the institutional status quo while actively seeking to avoid the “cult of character” that so often occurs among influencers today.

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy, while her wealthy English parents were on an extended European honeymoon. In 1844, Florence announced that she wanted to become a nurse. Her wealthy family did not approve of her decision because, in the mid-19th century, paid nursing was not considered an appropriate career for a woman of Florence’s social standing. During that era, nurses were too often stereotyped as uneducated, older women who were not members of polite society. However, Florence recognized the tremendous human need and wanted to make a difference by living a meaningful, purposeful life. Her choice and her legacy changed the course of the nursing profession.

Florence Nightingale popularized a version of a pie chart to statistically show that soldiers were dying more from the squalor of their hospital settings than from the wounds themselves. Using this statistical tool, she challenged the institutional norms of her day to revolutionize nursing care.

Under her direction, the wards were cleaned and ventilated, nutritious food was prepared, and the most desperately ill were bathed and given proper care. Florence did not forget her humanity while revolutionizing nursing care. She recognized that there were factors that impacted outcomes that could not be measured. She looked beyond her patient’s physical wounds. She cared for her patients’ mental health, writing letters for those who could not write, comforting the dying, and organizing reading rooms and activities to lift spirits. Of course, her tireless nightly rounds with her lamp in hand became legendary.

When she died in London on August 13, 1910, at the age of 90, she demonstrated a final gesture of humility by declining a state funeral at Westminster Abby. Instead, at her

request, she was laid to rest near her childhood home, and her simple gravestone marks the spot, bearing only her initials “F.N.” and the dates of her birth and death.

Evergreen leadership thanks our modern-day Florence Nightingales for your service to our patients and community. You are making a difference.

John Powell, M.D.

5/12/2026