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Photos: A historical look at nursing in Revelstoke

May 12 is International Nurses Day

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world each May 12 - the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.

According to the International Council of Nurses, there are more than 20 million nurses across the world, which is twice the population of Sweden.

This year, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing and pioneer of infection control during the Crimean War.

When Nightingale arrived at a Ottoman Empire military hospital in 1854, she found ten times more soldiers were dying from diseases due to poor hygiene, such as beds swarming with lice and flees and rats under the beds.

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Nightingale had her staff clean the hospital and was one of the first to use statistics for health care.

Nightingale once wrote,”What is nursing? Both kinds of nursing are to put us in the best possible conditions for nature to restore or preserve health—to prevent or to cure disease or injury.”

Interior Health said there are 61 nurses working in Revelstoke.

The British Royal family posted a video on social media, thanking nurses around the world.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union said frontline workers, such as nurses are at a high risk of being exposed to the virus.

According to the charity WaterAid, one in six nurses and doctors globally do not have soap and water available at work to wash their hands. The World Health Organization said handwashing with soap is the first deference against COVID-19.

This means, more than one billion people in some of the poorest regions of the world are seeking medical care without basic sanitation.


 

@RevelstokeRevue
editor@revelstoketimesreview.com

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