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.   

Click here and share the 2025 National Nurses Week Flyer

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

American Delivery: Solving the Maternal Mortality Crisis in U.S. Healthcare - a film and panel discussion

Tuesday, May 6, 1730-1930 at UVA SON’s McLeod Hall Auditorium

Click here for more information.

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 Battle Building 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. 

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