Celebrating our Healthcare Heroes: Nurses Month and Hospital Week

Although I’m grateful every day for the extraordinary #healthcare professionals within our Sutter Health network and beyond, it’s especially important during these unprecedented times to celebrate and thank them as we observe Nurses Month and National Hospital Week. The global COVID-19 pandemic is uncharted territory. As we navigate it together it’s heartwarming to see people around the world appreciating and honoring the bravery and compassion of frontline healthcare workers – our nurses, physicians and others – who do what the rest of us can’t at a time when the need and the unknowns can seem overwhelming. 

There have been so many extraordinary expressions of gratitude – big and small – for these healthcare heroes, and they deserve every ounce of praise and demonstration of support. While they go to the hospital, clinic or home each day to care for the sickest among us, they are also dealing with the same challenges and uncertainty the rest of us are as we try to navigate the impact of COVID-19 on our families and our lives and grapple with what the new “normal” may look like. That’s what makes them so extraordinary – and why we are all so grateful.

They show us the power, resilience and beauty of the human spirit. The same spirit behind the donations being made to support them and others in need, behind the cooperation I’m seeing among healthcare providers and leaders sharing critical information and lessons learned, behind the innovation and resolve to develop promising treatments and a vaccine, and behind the sacrifices made across the country as people shelter in place to slow the spread of the virus and protect others – including our frontline healthcare workers.

Please join me in recognizing Nurses Month and National Hospital Week as we continue to care for and support our patients, communities and each other during this challenging time. We appreciate their expertise and dedication now more than ever. I can’t thank our healthcare teams enough – and everyone involved in keeping our communities safe. I am so grateful for all they do every day.