While there are dozens of professional roles that touch patient care in a hospital, the most intimate and significant is nursing. Every person who has ever had a family member in an acute or critical care situation knows the difference made through the work of their loved one’s nurses. When visiting hours are over, kind, competent and engaged nurses are the reason you can sleep that night.

This year, we celebrate National Nurses Week this week. Given the monumental focus across the healthcare industry on improving patient safety, it’s fitting that the theme of this year’s celebration is “Culture of Safety — It Starts With You.” Nurses are at the heart of healthcare, and at the forefront of our nation’s efforts toward safer, more efficient delivery of care.

At Merit Health Natchez, our nurses have long played an important role in creating a culture of safety. Through their commitment to hourly rounding, careful communication with patients and the incoming shift’s nurses and specialized nursing training, they are making a difference each day.

Many of our nurses have lived in this community for much of their lives. They care for their friends and neighbors, they raise their children in our schools, they drive aging parents to appointments with our physicians, and they retire with a few tears and the fondness and esteem of their colleagues.

This year, Merit Health Natchez is proud to celebrate our nurses and their peers across the country. We acknowledge their roles as pioneers, paving the way for meaningful, measurable and lasting change in how health care is delivered.

Lee Hinson

Chief nursing officer

Merit Health Natchez