Baptist Health celebrates nurses during Nurse Appreciation Week
LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) – It is National Nurse Appreciation Week, with many businesses participating in the event by offering deals and discounts.
Nurse Appreciation Week runs from May 6th through the 12th.
Baptist Health Lexington held a celebration in honor of its nurses and show its appreciation.
There was food, massage therapists, aroma therapy, therapy dogs, activities and prizes.
Whitney Heet says she’s thankful for the recognition, especially after everything they’ve been through and all of the demands they face to give excellent care to patients.
“It’s important for them to feel like they have a place where they can relax and they can step away,” said Heet. “Because like we’ve said nursing is really hard and nursing is very taxing on us mentally, so we want them to be well, we want them to be healthy.”
Heet says that nursing is a 24/7 job, being there the moment your patient comes in, to the moment they leave.
Adding they are the ones being able to touch people’s lives.
Heet remembers one instance in her career where she felt appreciated after caring for a young woman and getting close not only with her, but with her family.
“I was able to provide relief, not only from a medical sense for her as the patient, but also for the family and they were beyond grateful and appreciative. They didn’t give me anything, they didn’t bring me any extra benefits, but they said thank you everyday.”
She says they celebrated every recovery together and had emotional conversations when she got sick.
Nursing director Jessica Baker says she recently got to see it from a personal point of view after her grandfather was admitted to the hospital.
“I don’t think they understand the value they are giving to these patients and their families. And that is something that I cherish daily and I took back to my team and I truly thanked them just for the things that they do every single day that they don’t even realize it.”
They both add that while it’s nice, they don’t need a full week of celebration and all it takes is just saying thank you and respecting the difficult job they do.
