National Nurses Day, also known as Nurses Appreciation Day, is today, May 6th, and extends into a full week of showing our gratitude and respect for those hard working individuals that take care of us in times of physical need.
We often take nurses for granted, but this past year has been a stern reminder of just how important they are. Their hard work and dedication has saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, not to mention from all of the other ailments we encounter throughout our lifetime. These are our real-life superheroes and the least we can do is recognize their tireless dedication with a sincere "Thank You" from the bottom of our hearts.
A Look Back to April 2020
This past year has felt both incredibly long and unbelievably short at the same time. Just over a year ago, the Covid-19 pandemic was beginning to hit the world hard. It had already shut down China and large portions of Europe. The United States was taking its first steps to stem the infections by announcing lockdown measures across the country.
Emergency Rooms were starting to fill up rapidly, with many hospitals being forced to turn away patients with non-life threatening ailments so that more beds would be available to Covid-19 patients. This is when our doctors and nurses across the country began to step on the gas, working countless hours to tend to the sick and doing everything in their power to help those suffering.
As it was early in the pandemic, suitable medical equipment and protective gear were in short supply, as national stockpiles did not account for a crisis of such magnitude, so nurses made due with what they had and scrounged up anything they could find. At the end of a long shift, many went home with sore faces and headaches caused by wearing ill-fitting equipment for hours on end.
With the shortage of protective medical equipment becoming national news, Americans began donating whatever supplies they could to local hospitals. In talking with an area nurse, we learned that her hospital was in need of basic cloth masks, which they wore throughout the day before switching to the higher end medical masks to interact with patients.
We tasked our Laser Specialist, Mike Hill, with creating some masks to try and help. Mike chose some fun and interesting patterns that we hoped would bring a bit of joy to the nurses that would be using them.
The cloth face masks were then delivered to a local area hospital and put to use!
A lot has changed since then. Hospitals now have the proper supplies they need to tend to the sick, and nurses and doctors have shown incredible ingenuity and adaptability to better help Covid-19 patients recover.
Showing your appreciation during nurses day and week can be as simple thanking them in person, sending a card with a heartfelt note in it or donating to your local hospital. Or, if you have the means and would like to create personalized cloth face masks or plastic face shields to donate, you can follow the links below for patterns and instructions on how to do so.
Link to Cloth Face Mask YouTube video: https://youtu.be/a-bgia1J2_k
Link to cloth Face Mask PDF instructions for download: https://www.troteclaser.com/fileadmin/content/pdf/News/us/face-mask-app.pdf
Link to Plastic Face Shield YouTube video: https://youtu.be/nF7LxikbbBU
Link to Plastic Face Shield PDF instructions for download: https://www.troteclaser.com/fileadmin/content/pdf/News/us/face-shield-app.pdf
If you do choose to make cloth face masks for donation, or for a loved one, you can put an extra special finishing touch on them with a Printy Clothing Marker stamp.
Printy Clothing Markers use a specialized ink that will stamp on fabric cleanly and clearly, and will remain on clothes wash after wash, which is essential for face masks that must be cleaned often. You can stamp a family member's name onto their mask, employees can stamp their name, department or employer names on their masks, and for those that are making cloth masks for others, you can stamp a message of kindness or your business name.
If you don't have the materials or equipment to produce masks for donations, there are plenty of other ways that we as stamp makers can help.
Due to the pandemic, hospitals and medical offices are running at or over capacity, making their personnel's time more valuable than ever. As more patients are admitted for care, more documentation is required, and this increases the short, repetitive notes that are taken every day.
Every medical office uses stamps in some form to help ease the burden of repetitive tasks, by eliminating time-consuming handwriting and increasing efficiency. Self-inking stamps can also alleviate some of the confusion or miscommunication that sometimes occurs from handwriting fatigue, and can help medical personnel focus less on writing, and more on the well-being of their patients and staff. Consider reaching out to your local hospital to see if they are in need of new or updated stamps for their office, and donate what you can to help out.
While the Covid-19 pandemic continues, it is thanks to our caring nurses across the nation, and the world, that we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. They have done everything in their power to help the rest of us through these trying times.
We want to thank all of the nurses and medical personnel who battle day in and day out to keep us safe and healthy.
YOU are our real life superheroes.