Our 700 Reasons to Celebrate Nurses

National Nurses Week provides us with the opportunity to thank our nurses and to remind our hospital staff, providers and the community of the vital role nurses hold at Milford Regional Medical Center. Their contributions are vast and have a positive impact on our hospital. The American Nurses Association has selected this year’s theme as: 4 Million Reasons to Celebrate. At Milford Regional, we have 700 of the finest nurses, and it’s our honor to celebrate each of them for the exceptional care they provide to our patients.

The American public has ranked nurses as professionals with the highest honesty and ethical standards. This underscores the deep trust that the public has in us. Let’s celebrate Milford Regional nurses for their:

• Commitment to high quality care of patients and families
• Influence in clinical practice decision making
• Role as a trusted patient and family advocates
• Voice on important practice issues like ERAS, Pain Management and Medication safety
• Unit Based Best Practice Councils and resource teams like Diabetes, Policy and Procedure and Skin/Wound
• Sharing clinical narratives demonstrating resilience and determination while navigating an ever-changing and complex health care system.

We have continued on our journey to live out our mission statement for nursing: Extraordinary staff providing exceptional care to our community in a genuinely caring environment. Every Patient, Every Day. It speaks to what exceptional care and evidence-based practice look like at Milford Regional.  Nursing leadership is inspired by our nurses’ collective and collaborative efforts in the development of the mission statement. We have talented, caring and dedicated nurses at Milford Regional who live the hospital values of Dignity, Compassion, Respect, Commitment, Evidenced Based Practice, Quality, Teamwork, Safety, and Collaboration. I am so proud of our team.

Over this next year, we will strive to further advance nursing practice at MRMC.

Participation in the NDNQI (National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators) will assist us with measuring the quality of our practice.  We will be implementing the RN Practice Environment survey in June to hear the voice of nurses who provide direct patient care. It will validate all the positives and identify areas for improvement to support the work of the nurses at the bedside. Additionally we will be looking at practice models that will engage direct care nurses and managers in shared decision making related to clinical practice.

As we celebrate the nursing profession and recognize our colleagues, I would like to thank our dedicated team of nurses at Milford Regional for providing exceptional care to our patients and our community. Their commitment to excellence in nursing practice and patient care is recognized and appreciated by the Milford Regional leadership team, physicians, staff, patients and families every day.

National Nurses Week provides an opportunity to give nurses the respect and recognition they deserve. It is my pleasure to learn and grow with our amazing nurses.  Happy Nurses Week to each and every one of you!

Milford Regional Medical Center nurses are simply the best!