(Editor’s Note: This blog has been updated to highlight 2021 recognitions.)
As a recruitment professional, you know the many contributions nurses make to patients and the healthcare of our nation every day.
Those contributions are celebrated and recognized each year — as they should be — through special nursing recognition days set aside to honor nurses and their specialties.
How did Nursing Recognition Days Start?
These special nursing recognition days began after physicians chose to focus their practices in specific areas of medicine and surgery. Hospitals and other facilities began to group patients together in departments and on units for specialized care. Nurses took advanced training in these specialties to staff those units.
Soon, those nurses formed professional organizations focused on their areas of expertise. They began to network with one another and share best practices. They advanced their careers by finding their voices, taking seats at the leadership table and becoming change agents and advocates. And they helped grow the group.
Professional nursing organizations also began to recognize their members for the work they do by setting aside recognition times each year to honor and thank them.
Today, there are multiple days, weeks and months — and several ways — to celebrate the profession as a whole or specific nurses with certain talents or focus areas of healthcare.
As a recruitment professional, you should share how your organization celebrates nurses with your job applicants, since meaningful recognition is highly valued and contributes to overall job satisfaction.
Add the following dates to your annual calendar. They cover several recognition days, months and weeks that your organization will want to keep in mind.
2021 nursing recognition dates to add to your calendar
January
- National CRNA Week – Jan. 24-30
- National IV Nurse Day – Jan. 25
February
- PeriAnesthesia Nurse Awareness Week – Feb. 1-7
- Cardiovascular Professionals Week – Feb. 14-20
- Critical Care Transport Nurses Day – Feb. 18
March
- Certified Nurses Day – March 19
- GI Nurses & Associates Week – March 21-27
April
- Radiological and Imaging Nurses Day – April 12
- WOC Nurse Week – April 11-17
- Transplant Nurses Day – April 21
May
- National Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month
- Oncology Nursing Month
- National Nurses Day – May 6
- National School Nurse Day – May 6
- National Nurses Week – May 6-12
- Neuroscience Nurses Week – May 9-15
- International Nurses Day – May 12
June
September
- Vascular Nurses Week – Sept. 5-11
- National Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses Day – Sept. 8
- Nephrology Nurses Week – Sept. 12-18
- Nursing Professional Development Week – Sept. 12-18
- National Neonatal Nurses Week– Sept. 13-19
October
- National Midwifery Week – Oct. 3-9
- Emergency Nurses Week – Oct. 12-18
- Pediatric Nurses Week – Oct. 4-8
- Emergency Nurses Day – Oct. 13
- National Case Management Week – Oct. 10-16
- International Infection Prevention Week – Oct. 17-23
- International Orthopaedic Nurses Day – Oct. 30
November
- National Hospice and Palliative Care Month
- Medical-Surgical Nurses Week – Nov. 1-7
- Urology Nurses and Associates Week – Nov. 1-7
- Forensic Nurses Week – Nov. 8-12
- National Nurse Practitioner Week – Nov. 7-13
- Perioperative Nurses Week – Nov. 14-20
Nurses Want to Know They are Valued
Impress upon nurse applicants that they will be highly valued team members at your organization and let them know which days, weeks or months your organization celebrates — and how you do it. It might be what propels them to choose your job offer over another.
