Celebrating BC Indigenous Nurses Day – VCH
Apr 08, 2022
Background
In 2020, during the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the New Zealand Nurses’ Organization (NZNO) stated that “the historical figures whom we choose to venerate say a lot about who we are” and became the first national nursing organization to publicly choose not to celebrate nurses on May 12 – a day chosen in honour of nurse Florence Nightingale. At the height of the British Empire, Nightingale played an active role in colonial legacies.
Locally, the BC Nurses’ Union, in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Canadian Nurses Foundation, First Nations Health Authority and Thomson Rivers University and supported by the Canadian Federation of Nursing Unions, has declared April 10 as BC Indigenous Nurses Day. In doing this, the Union celebrates the contribution of all past and present Indigenous nurses while consciously disconnecting from the colonial history of the initial nurse recognition day.
Read More: http://www.vch.ca/about-us/news/celebrating-bc-indigenous-nurses-day
