Mother’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year. Beyond its mercantilist connotations, commemoration serves to thank and recognize the care they provide in the family environment, regardless of its structure or composition. Likewise, and though not quite present, the work women do beyond family care, or rather family care, is obvious.
No one questions this celebration or its significance, but unfortunately it is often only made visible on this day.
World Nurses Day, which coincides with the birthday of nurse Florence Nightingale, who is considered to be the driving force of modern nursing, was celebrated all over the world yesterday.
I do not intend to draw parallels with mothers as it would distort both one and the other. I wanted to draw attention to the importance of the professional care that nurses provide to individuals, families and society. Time and space, dedication and technique, science and wisdom, theoretical knowledge and praxis, as well as the human values ​​that give them the quality of care, are the cares that require placing them at the level of human dignity.
Nor is it about making differences to try to assess which care is most important. Since maintenance has a reason to be due to human weakness, it wouldn’t make much sense otherwise. Therefore, it does not matter whether vulnerability is a result of the life cycle in which the person finds himself, the newborn, the schoolchild, the elderly… or the need to achieve, maintain or improve health. In any case, maternal, family or professional care will be required.
The problem is determined by the low value society generally places and continues to give to care. Be it local, family or professional. Among other things, to stereotypically assign them to women and to separate them from the workforce and science.
Respectful care is a goal that should go beyond celebrating Mother’s Day or nurses. This means recognizing their human, professional or scientific strength and giving it the true value they have.
Making visible and honoring, recognizing and demanding the special contribution of nursing care is something we as a society must identify and realize. To the extent that we do this, we will contribute to their transformation from being an irreparable product to becoming an added value for health.
Just as careless motherhood cannot be understood, careless health cannot be understood. The difference is that the first is a recognized value and the second is a hidden value.
After a health and health crisis that we have lived and continue to live with the pandemic, the importance of care has emerged in the face of so much pain, suffering and death. Now that we are starting to get rid of the masks and return to the normality we so desire, we must bear in mind that forgetting or the importance of professional nursing care and care is not possible and should not be included. They are people they provide from professionalism, science and humanity, such as nurses. Because, of course, it would be a distorted normality that goes far beyond technique or healing, far from the real needs of society. Because both the technique and the treatment are not always possible, not accessible, and they cannot achieve what is expected of them. However, care is always available, accessible and capable of achieving therapeutic effects from the comprehensive, integrated and integrative care that every individual has a right to and every nurse is obliged to provide.
Nurses have an intrinsic value, understood as the value we contribute as nurses, and we can only do this through our care. Value as an intangible asset of the nursing contribution is the best way to make our voices heard and make our identity and care leadership visible. And also the best way to celebrate our international day. But we want and wish our celebration to be collective and participatory. Precisely with nurses, people, families, and society for what we are and why we feel.
We are not heroes or heroines and we don’t want to be. We don’t want to be more than others, but we don’t want to be less either. We don’t want to be given anything, but we want to be recognized and made visible. We do not want to take on more heroism in the professional care we provide to help people realize self-care in the process of self-determination, self-direction, autonomy and decision-making.
We are professionals and we want to contribute because of our responsibility and the value of our contribution is requested from us, regards. We want to be visible and announce care leadership to contribute to the protection of the right to care and global health.
As a society, let’s celebrate Nurses’ Day ourselves as we do Mother’s Day, and contribute to dignified care to benefit from the benefits of giving or receiving care.
Source: Informacion
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.