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Governor John P. de
Jongh, Jr. has proclaimed May 6-12, 2012 as “Nurses Week” in the Virgin Islands to honor the territory's more than 300 registered nurses.
The 3.1 million nurses in the United States comprise our nation's largest group of health care professionals. Their work is an indispensable component to ensuring the safety and quality of care for patients, and demand for registered nursing services continues to grow as a result of the aging population and continuing expansion of life-sustaining technology.
“The depth and breadth of the services that nurses provide are crucial to meeting the emerging health care needs of the territory, including promoting the restoration and maintenance of the health and wellness of their patients,” de Jongh said.
As the voices for registered nurses in the country and territory, The American Nurses Association and the Virgin Islands State Nurses Association are actively charting a new course for a healthy nation that relies on expanding the delivery of primary and preventive health care through an increased reliance on registered nurses.
The renewed emphasis on primary and preventive health care will require better utilization of our nation's registered nursing resources. More qualified registered nurses will be needed in the future to meet the increasingly complex needs of health care consumers in this community.
“As a territory, the quality of life we enjoy is directly related to nurses providing those in need of services with first-class, cost-effective health care. Let us recognize that contribution during Nurses Week,” de Jongh said.
In conjunction with the American Nurses Association, the Virgin Islands State Nurses Association will commemorate this year's Nurses Week with the theme: “Nurses: Advocating, Leading Caring,” which celebrates the ways in which registered nurses strive to provide safe and high quality patient care and map out strategies to improve our health care system.
Governor de Jongh calls upon Virgin Islanders to join him in honoring the territory's registered nurses and recognizing their accomplishments and contributions to the improvement of our health care
system.
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