12th May International Nurses Day

International Nurses Day is the perfect time to celebrate the contribution these health-workers make to the community, even more so since their importance has been highlighted during the pandemic. It is celebrated on this day to commemorate the birth of English nurse, Florence Nightingale in 1820. I wrote about this day in 2011 here, yet in that time there has not been an abundance of newer books about nurses. 

Nurses feature in board books for preschoolers and in series such as Peppa Pig, Maisy, Topsy and Tim,  more often than not because they are visiting a hospital, but then there is a big gap reading-wise till you have biographies like those about Florence Nightingale. Your library might have these books:

 

The stories here that are based on real nurses show readers how fearless, compassionate and driven they were .

If you have young children the book A Trip to the Hospital  by Freda Chiu highlights each of the health professionals that work in a hospital which means there is a lot to discover and discuss.

12th May International Nurses Day Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)

International Nurses Day is the perfect time to celebrate the contribution these health-workers make to the community. It is celebrated on this day to commemorate the birth of English nurse, Florence Nightingale in 1820. Florence, so named because she was born in Florence, was famous for her work during the Crimean War and the tuition of her fellow nurses. She epitomised commitment and devotion to her patients and quality care, something nurses still aspire to today. She became known as 'the lady with the lamp' because she even tended to her patients at night by lamp light.

Florence was an educated woman and she disliked the lack of opportunity for females in her social circle. She began to visit the poor and look after those who were ill and although this was not seen as a noble act she persevered and came to raise the reputation of nursing as a role for women. There are many non-fiction children's books about nurses and Florence Nightingale in particular. Two that fit the bill are Florence Nightingale by Lucy Lethbridge, one of the titles in the Usborne series 'Famous Lives' and We Need Nurses one of the numerous books in a series about community workers.