Tag Archives: Nursing

The Unsung Heroes of the Golden Hour: National Nurses Day 2026

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A Personal Reflection One Year Later

During a 17-day period in late 2024 extending into the second week of  2025, I found myself in a hospital bed at Atrium Hospital Cabarrus, recovering from a perforated ulcer and a subsequent gallbladder surgery. In the quiet moments between the hum of monitors and the soft squeak of rubber soles on linoleum, I realized something profound: while my surgeon was the architect of my recovery, my nurses were the ones who actually built the bridge back to my life.

I wrote then about the “heart and science” of nursing – how they manage the intricate dance of medicine while simultaneously checking if you can handle the stairs at home or if you have enough food in the pantry. That experience stayed with me. So, as we approach May 6, 2026, National Nurses Day, I returned to my local library, looking for the “rest of the story.”

I found it in the pages of ER Nurses by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann. If my previous reading, Sarah DiGregorio’s Taking Care, was a broad lens on the history and sociology of the profession, Patterson’s collection is a high-speed camera, capturing the raw, visceral heartbeat of the emergency room. That long stay mentioned above started in 2 different ERs in two different hospitals, and I’m grateful for the care and speed they moved me from the ER to ambulance to admittance to surgery.

The “Power of Nurses”: A 2026 Mandate

National Nurses Day 2026 marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, culminating on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. This year’s theme, The Power of Nurses, focuses on how these professionals influence healthcare transformation and policy. But before we talk about policy, we must talk about the people.

In ER Nurses, Patterson and Eversmann step back and let the nurses speak for themselves. These are first-person accounts – “bullet-straight words,” as author Sebastian Junger calls them, from the men and women who inhabit the twilight world between life and death.

Life in the Golden Hour

In the ER, there is a concept known as the “Golden Hour” – the critical window where medical intervention has the highest likelihood of preventing death. For a nurse, this hour is not a rare event; it is the rhythm of their shift.

One of the most striking elements of Patterson’s book is the sheer variety of the stories. You meet nurses in big-city trauma centers dealing with gunshot wounds and multi-car pileups, and you meet flight nurses who stabilize patients in the back of a vibrating helicopter 2,000 feet above the ground.

There is a raw intensity to these accounts. They describe the physical toll: the 12-hour shifts that turn into 14, the aching backs, and the “nursing bladder” (a dark joke among the profession about the rare opportunity to use the restroom). But more importantly, they describe the emotional toll.

One nurse in the book recounts caring for a patient for two months, watching his steady decline, and then having the “deeply upsetting conversations” with his partner about the end of their decades-long partnership. This is the part of the job that isn’t on a chart. It’s the “heart” I mentioned last year – the ability to hold a hand and provide a steady presence when a family’s world is collapsing.

The Reality Behind the “Hero” Label

During the pandemic years of 2020-21, we were quick to label nurses as “heroes.” While the sentiment is well-meaning, Patterson’s book offers a necessary counter-perspective through the voices of the nurses themselves.

Many contributors in ER Nurses express a complicated relationship with the hero narrative. One nurse, Kelsi, notes that while the media focuses on the life-saving adrenaline, the reality of the ER is often “heartburn, seasonal allergies, and ingrown toenails.” More poignantly, another nurse expresses frustration with being called a hero while being “ignored by my organization when I’m hit in the face by a patient, or verbally abused by a disgruntled family member.”

This is a crucial lesson for us as we celebrate National Nurses Day 2026. True appreciation isn’t just a hashtag or a celebratory banner; it’s acknowledging the “brutally hard work” and demanding the fair treatment, mental health support, and working conditions these professionals deserve. The “Power of Nurses” is limited if the nurses themselves are running on empty.

The Science of the Split-Second

While the heart of nursing is found in empathy, the “science” is found in the split-second clinical decisions that happen in the ER. Patterson highlights how an ER nurse must be a “healthcare air traffic controller.”

When a trauma patient arrives, the nurse is the one recognizing subtle patterns – a slight change in pupil dilation, a specific type of pallor, a minute drop in oxygen saturation – that might signal a stroke or internal bleeding before the doctor even enters the room. They are the ones administering blood transfusions, managing complex social dynamics, and ensuring that every member of the surgical team has exactly what they need.

As one nurse in the book puts it: “Doctors figure out where the patient is and where they need to be. Nurses are the ones who actually get you there.”

The Legacy of the Lamp

The symbol of National Nurses Day is the oil lamp, representing the “Lady with the Lamp,” Florence Nightingale, who made her rounds through the dark wards of the Crimean War. In 2026, that lamp has been replaced by the green light of a heart monitor and the high-intensity LEDs of a trauma bay, but the “light” nurses bring remains the same.

In ER Nurses, you read about Tara Cuccinelli and Teneille Taylor – nurses whose stories are so raw and powerful they demand a second reading. They represent the hundreds of thousands of nurses who will clock in today, on May 6, and every day after.

How We Can Celebrate

As readers of 27gen know, I am a firm believer in the concept of the “Wednesday Weekly Reader” – the idea that staying curious and informed about the world makes us better family, neighbors, and humans. This National Nurses Day, I encourage you to do more than just say “thank you.”

  1. Educate Yourself: Pick up a copy of ER Nurses or Sarah DiGregorio’s Taking Care. Understand the complexity of what these professionals do.
  2. Advocate: Support policies that ensure safe patient-to-nurse ratios and mental health resources for healthcare workers.
  3. Listen: If you have a nurse in your life, ask them about their day – the ingrown toenails and the tragedies alike. Sometimes the greatest gift is simply being seen.

To the teams at Atrium Huntersville Emergency Department and Atrium Cabarrus Emergency Department and PSC-3 who cared for me, and to the millions of nurses featured in Patterson’s pages and beyond: your work is the “beating heart” of our society. You see us at our worst, and you give us your best.

Happy National Nurses Day.

Part of a regular series on 27gen, entitled Wednesday Weekly Reader.

During my elementary school years one of the things I looked forward to the most was the delivery of “My Weekly Reader,” a weekly educational magazine designed for children and containing news-based current events.

It became a regular part of my love for reading, and helped develop my curiosity about the world around us.

The Heart and Science of Nursing

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A Personal Story

You know that nurse who helped you or your loved one during a hospital stay? The one who really saw you, heard you, and knew exactly what you needed? That’s not a coincidence – it’s what great nursing is all about. Whether we realize it or not, nurses are often there for many of life’s biggest moments, from our first breath to our last, the birth and growing pains of our children, and then the reality of aging adults – first our parents, then ourselves.

In a continuation of a recent post, I want to give you “the rest of the story.”

After 10 days in the hospital, spread over 2 stays, I was looking forward to going home – and I did, for 3 uneventful days. Then the pain returned with a vengeance, and so did I – back to the hospital. Imaging soon revealed that while the ruptured ulcer was continuing to heal, the aftereffects of the perforation had inflamed the gallbladder, and a stone lodged in a duct was causing the intense pain. Surgery was scheduled for the next day, and I was discharged two days later.

The pain was gone, and it was time to continue healing at home. I couldn’t do anything except lay in bed, and for those of you who know me, you know what’s coming next:

Reading.

In this case, I wanted to know more about that wonderful team of women (mostly) and men we call nurses who had provided care for me. A quick search of my local library and a pickup by Anita delivered this marvelous book that reflects so much of what I experienced over a two-week plus stay in the hospital, all under the care of the PSC-3 Nursing team at Atrium Cabarrus.

Nurses have always been vital to human existence. A nurse was likely there when you were born and a nurse might well be there when you die. Familiar in hospitals and doctors’ offices, these dedicated health professionals can also be found in schools, prisons, and people’s homes; at summer camps; on cruise ships, and at workplaces. Yet despite being celebrated during the Covid-19 epidemic, nurses are often undermined and undervalued in ways that reflect misogyny and racism, and that extend to their working conditions – and affect the care available to everyone. But the potential power of nursing to create a healthier, more just world endures.

The story of nursing is complicated. It is woven into war, plague, religion, the economy, and our individual lives in myriad ways. In Taking Care, journalist Sarah DiGregorio chronicles the lives of nurses past and tells the stories of those today – caregivers at the vital intersection of health care and community who are actively changing the world, often invisibly. An absorbing and empathetic work that combines storytelling with nuanced reporting, Taking Care examines how we have always tried to care for each other – the incredible ways we have succeeded and the ways in which we have failed. Fascinating, empowering and significant, it is a call for change and a love letter to the nurses of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Think about what comes to mind when you hear the word “nurse.” Maybe you remember clapping during the early days of COVID, or you picture Florence Nightingale with her lamp. Perhaps you think of TV shows like M*A*S*H or countless others.. But the reality of nursing goes much deeper than any of these images suggest.

Here’s something that might surprise you: nursing is actually one of the biggest professions in the world, with over 27 million nurses and midwives globally. In the U.S. alone, there are three times as many nurses as doctors! Without nurses, our healthcare system would basically grind to a halt.

And nurses? They’re everywhere! They’re not just in hospitals – they’re on cruise ships managing outbreaks, in libraries doing free blood pressure checks, at NASA monitoring astronauts (how cool is that?), and even in state legislatures writing healthcare policies. They’re the ultimate healthcare multitaskers.

But what exactly do nurses do? Well, it’s way more than just following doctors’ orders. While doctors typically focus deeply on specific medical conditions, nurses take care of the whole picture. Think of it this way: if you’re leaving the hospital, your doctor might prescribe your medications, but your nurse is the one making sure you understand how to take them, checking if you can handle the stairs at home, and figuring out if you have someone to help with cooking.

Here’s my real-world example: imagine you need gallbladder removal surgery. Sure, the hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon does the actual operation, but nurses are there every step of the way. They’re prepping you, putting in your IV, checking your vitals, and acting like healthcare air traffic controllers – making sure everyone from social workers to anesthesiologists to radiology staff is in the right place at the right time. After surgery, they’re watching your pain levels, managing your medications, preventing infections, and teaching your family how to care for you at home.

One nurse quoted in Taking Care put it perfectly: “Doctors figure out where the patient is and where they need to be. Nurses are the ones who actually get you there.” It’s like doctors draw the map, but nurses help you navigate the journey.

And get this – nursing isn’t just about medical procedures and medications. It’s about building relationships and understanding people in their full context – their family situation, their community, their environment. As nurse researcher Monica McLemore explained in the book, “Everyone thinks it’s just skills and tasks, like putting in IVs or reading monitors. But that’s just one part. Our real job is helping people through transitions, whether that’s recovering from illness or adapting to a new health reality.”

Think about it: nurses are often the first ones to notice when something’s off. Maybe it’s a subtle change in someone’s mental state that could signal a stroke, or maybe it’s spotting a pattern of heat-related health issues in farm workers. They’re like healthcare detectives, constantly putting together pieces of the puzzle.

The cool thing about nursing is that it’s both super scientific and deeply human. Nurses need to understand complex biology and medical procedures, but they also need to be great communicators and problem-solvers. They’re the ones asking the practical questions that doctors might not think of: “Do you feel safe walking in your neighborhood?” “Is there anyone at home who can help you?” “Do you need assistance getting food?”

And here’s something that often gets overlooked: nurses work with doctors, not for them. They’re separate but complementary professions, like two sides of the same healthcare coin. While doctors might focus on curing a specific condition, nurses focus on healing the whole person – and yes, there’s a difference!

So next time you’re in a healthcare setting, remember that the nurse caring for you is part of this amazing tradition that combines scientific knowledge, practical skills, and deep human connection. They’re not just there to take your temperature or give you medicine – they’re there to help guide you through whatever health journey you’re on, making sure you have what you need every step of the way.

After all, sooner or later, we all need someone to nurse us through tough times. And when that time comes, it’s pretty amazing to have someone who knows both the science of healing and the art of caring on your side.

With grateful appreciation to all the nursing team of PSC-3; you are caring professionals to the core.

Thank you.

Part of a regular series on 27gen, entitled Wednesday Weekly Reader.

During my elementary school years one of the things I looked forward to the most was the delivery of “My Weekly Reader,” a weekly educational magazine designed for children and containing news-based current events.

It became a regular part of my love for reading, and helped develop my curiosity about the world around us.