Celebrating National Nurses Day 2022
Dear Howard University Community,
At Howard University and Howard University Hospital, we have long advocated for patient-centered care, where the patient is the object of our affection and obsession. In order to cultivate and realize this manner of health care delivery, it is critical that we invest in one demographic in particular: our nursing staff.
Today, we celebrate National Nurses Day and pause to pay tribute to these individuals who play an instrumental role in the health and wellness of all people. In many ways, the major milestones of our lives and in the lives of our loved ones unfold in hospitals. We all come to rely on the calm and comforting presence of these frontline caregivers as well as the expert and kind-hearted care our nurses deliver.
In countless ways, my life has been enabled and enhanced by nurses. From a very young age, I have held the belief that nursing is a most noble profession and important calling. My mother worked as a nurse in Trinidad and Tobago for 51 years. As a child, I would stand by her side as she visited patients to dress their wounds and tend to their needs. Her approval of the way I would watch her work, without fear or disgust, and with respect and awe, inspired me to pursue a career in the medical field.
Beyond accompanying my mother, and before I ever became a health care provider myself, I spent days of my life in the hospital dealing with the effects of a sickle cell crisis. More than anyone else, it was the nurses who cared for me, who calmed me, who provided for my needs. It was the nurses at Howard’s Center for Sickle Cell Disease who helped me understand my disease and showed me how to care for myself.
When I became a cancer surgeon, my admiration for nurses only grew as I worked alongside them as colleagues. Even more than I understood as a patient, being a doctor allowed me to appreciate even more fully how nurses serve as the backbone of our health care system. The work of doctors and administrator and technicians would not be possible without the efforts, the attention and the vision of our nursing staff.
Early on in my career, I was taught to abide by a key principle: Until I speak with the nurses, I haven’t adequately checked in on a patient. Of course, meeting with the patient, speaking with the patient, checking the patient’s vitals and wounds is essential to providing them with the best care. But the nurses know the patients even better than they know themselves. And if we ever overlook or discount our nurses, our patients will suffer the consequences.
At this moment, we are continuing to negotiate a new contract with the union representatives of the Howard University Hospital nursing staff. But I want to reassure our community that we are absolutely committed to providing our nurses with pay and support that recognizes just how hard they work and how essential they are to the operations and outcomes of our hospital.
Once again, let us take time this National Nurses Day to show our appreciation for our nurses, a foundational and irremovable pillar of our society. And we would be remiss if we were to forget to thank and congratulate this year’s graduates from the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences. You are entering this most critical profession at a time of extraordinary consequence. As we continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and work to refashion our health care system to more equitably care for all people, you stand positioned to change the industry in your image and to the service of your communities. We are grateful for the career you have chosen and the good you will do to those most in need.
Excellence in Truth and Service,
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery
President