Nurses Week

2025 National Nurses Week 

May 6 – 12

 

We are excited to celebrate National Nurses Week with you here at UVA Health University Medical Center! A variety of events and opportunities are available for you to participate in. Click below for an overview of available celebration activities.   

Photos from Nurses Week 2025

Click Here to View the Winners of the Nurses Week Giveways

Click Here to View the Winners of the Virtual Scavenger Hunt

 

UVA School of Nursing’s Preceptor Appreciation Day

Monday, May 5, 0700-1300 in Dining Conference Rooms 2 & 3

Click here for a printable flyer.

 

2025 Evidence-Based Practice Symposium

May 6, 0900-1530 at UVA North Fork Discovery Park

Registration in Workday required. 

Click here for a printable flyer

 

2025 Annual Nursing Excellence Awards 

May 8, 1600-1900 at DoubleTree Hotel

RSVP required.

 

Nurses Light Up the Sky

In celebration of the American Nurses Enterprise’s focus on “The Power of Nurses,” UVA Health’s South Tower will be illuminated in red each night throughout National Nurses Week. We are joining the Light Up The Sky effort to celebrate nurses across the nation. 

A Message of Gratitude

Celebrating UVA Health's Nurses

From our UVA Health Leadership:

To all UVA Health nurses: thank you for your unwavering commitment to putting patients first and for all you do to inspire hope and transform health across Virginia and beyond.

Nurses Week TV Spotlight

UVA Registered Nurses Nicole Blake and Kyle Howard shared their stories of choosing UVA after travel nursing as part of our Nurses Week TV Spotlight. Watch the clips here and here.

What is National Nurses Week?

National Nurses Week is an important opportunity for communities to recognize the contributions that nurses make in a variety of roles in both healthcare and non-healthcare settings.

The idea of Nurses Week began in the early 1950s but was not formally celebrated until the mid-1970s. In 1974, the International Council of Nurses declared May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, to be International Nurses Day. In 1982, the American Nurses Association declared May 6 as National Nurses Day. The ANA then designated May 6-12 to be National Nurses Week in 1990.

Florence Nightingale is often referred to as the founder of modern nursing, laying the foundation of professional nursing using statistics and writing to share her work, outcomes, and new knowledge.

 

“Let us never consider ourselves finished nurses. We must be learning all of our lives.”

Florence Nightingale

Edited by: Pamela Morris (pm2t) Updated: June 12, 2025