SPECIAL SESSION: Wartime Nurse Heroes Recognition

Description/Overview: Over the centuries nations have engaged in conflicts that have often resulted in massive physical and emotional injuries. Warriors have fought with bravery and courage. Their sacrifices have generally been recognized and honored. However, equally courageous nurses have played a major role in preservation of life and comfort. Although these brave nurses have asked little in return for their service, it is crucial that they receive the recognition and honor so justly deserved. Florence Nightingale lost several of her volunteer nurses during the Crimean War to disease. Dorothea Dix, Supervisor of Union nurses, almost lost Louisa May Alcott to typhoid during the American Civil War and did lose Alcott’s supervisor, Hannah Ropes. Edith Cavell, a British nurse in Belgium during WWI, was executed by the Germans for her unbiased nursing care without regard to nationality. Several Turkish nurses died during the cholera epidemic that struck during the Balkan War in 1912. Nie Yuchan, Dean of the Peking Medical College School of Nursing, joined the Chinese exodus during the War of Resistance, but reopened her School maintaining the confidence of all nurses both in Free and Occupied China. Recently, 60 nurses and health workers of the polio vaccine program in Pakistan were murdered by the Taliban. Over the history of nursing many military and civilian volunteer nurses have risked their lives for their patients and their profession during times of conflict. While each of these individuals served as nurses and delivered nursing care to their patients in their localized conflict, each of them impacted others throughout their global region, and their service is an example of selfless sacrifice and leadership globally for all of us. At the 2013 STTI House of Delegates a call was issued to establish a taskforce to investigate how best to recognize and honor these “nurse heroes.” This Special Session is a small part of this recognition of these remarkable nurses from around the globe and throughout history. In this session nurse historians will introduce the topic and the need for international recognition, as well as the history of the STTI presidential call. A brief representative discussion, led by members of the STTI Wartime Nurse Heroes Task Force, will highlight the sacrifice of a few representative nurses from around the world and from STTI’s global regions. A call has been issued to all global regions to nominate a nurse from their region who deserves recognition and presentation of that nurse’s accomplishments during this session. Nurses who suffered and sacrificed while delivering nursing care in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania will be named along with their stories of sacrifice individually and collectively. The session will conclude with recommendations to STTI for the future of this taskforce and its vital work. Hopefully this special session will become a catalyst to create a conversation about these inspiring nurses and a permanent listing and/or repository of their names, accomplishments, and sacrifices where they can be recognized and honored for decades to come.