Paper
Halls C & D (Indiana Convention Center)
Saturday, November 12, 2005
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Halls C & D (Indiana Convention Center)
Sunday, November 13, 2005
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM
Halls C & D (Indiana Convention Center)
Sunday, November 13, 2005
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
This presentation is part of : Creative and Expressive Arts in Nursing
Chicago's Nurse Parade
Connie Robinson, RN, MSN, MBA, Pediatric Nephrology, University of Chicago Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA, Carolyn Hope Smeltzer, RN, EdD, FACHE, FAAN, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Healthcare Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Chicago, IL, USA, and Fran R. Vlasses, RN, PhD, Nursing, Loyola University, Marcella Niehoff College of Nursing, Glen Ellyn, IL, USA.

During the years 1948-1958, Chicago hosted 'The Nurse's Day Parade'. The purpose of the parade was to draw attention to nurses' work, honor nurses, and recruit into the profession. At its zenith the parade included over 100 hospital floats, 4,000 combined nurse and student nurse participants, 30 bands and 100,000 spectators. This presentation highlights the role of student nurses in making the Nurse's Day Parade a success. Through a compelling photographic and narrative journey the images of student nurse's dedication, creativity and commitment to their future profession, respective nursing schools and to Chicago will be visible. These images will demonstrate student nurse participation in selecting float themes / float designs, fundraising for float materials and in some cases actually constructing the floats. The results were student nurses being visible and committed in gaining a higher level of respect for the nursing profession. Through these captivating pictures student nurses can be seen publicly demonstrating their roles as patient advocate, collaborator, organizer ,role model, and active participants in a creative solution to attract others into the profession and honor working nurses. This nursing history was Chicago's "best kept secret" for over sixty years. Facts of the Chicago Nurses Day Parade has changed nursing history as well as evoked nursing memories. The first Nurse's Day was proclaimed in Illinois in 1949 and continued until 1958. Our current history cites New Jersey in the mid 70's as the first to proclaim Nurse's Day. Nurses, who as students marched in the parade, add the human story to this history. These nurses, now in their seventies, reflect on their emotional memories and feelings about being part of this parade and of nursing history. They discuss the honor of participating with community, church, government and merchants to highlight nurse's work in a parade.