MOUNT VERNON — National Nurses Week began with National Nurses Day on Friday and continues through Thursday, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
Sandy Beidelschies, chief nursing officer at Knox Community Hospital, said KCH is very proud of its nursing staff and the work they do every day to take care of patients.
“Nurses are an important part of our health care team,” she said. “They are often the front-line contact of the patient, not only providing nursing care but carrying out the medical regimen. Obviously, the physician directs the patient’s medical regimen. The nurse is responsible for the nursing care, the nursing regimen. Together it’s that strength in the team; it’s the strength in those two components that help the patient on the road to wellness, to a healthier state and sometimes even the end of life.”
Nurses also help coordinate care for the patient, Beidelschies said. “We work with many other disciplines that provide nursing care, like pharmacies, like physical therapy. Certainly our laboratory and our diagnostic imaging folks are very important, too. It’s frequently the nurse who will coordinate a lot of that care. Hopefully, we keep the patient in mind so that we’re coordinating rest and pain management and all those things to make sure we’re optimizing all the things that need to be done for the patient.”
