[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 38 (Tuesday, April 12, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 EXEMPLARY HEALTH CARE THE HALLMARK OF VA NURSES--``MY NURSE IS TAKING 
                           GOOD CARE OF ME''

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                      HON. G.V. (SONNY) MONTGOMERY

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 12, 1994

  Mr. MONTGOMERY. Mr. Speaker, during the nearly 26 years I have been a 
member of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I have had the 
opportunity to visit a number of VA hospitals, and it is rare that I do 
not hear the above declaration or some variation from a patient, his or 
her family, or acquaintances. Based on this experience and other 
observations and opportunities during my travels and work here in 
Washington, I know I am accurate when I say that nurses are the 
heartbeat of not only the VA health care system but health care in 
general in America.
  Nurses are widely recognized for being dedicated, even among those 
who have had only cursory contacts with medical facilities. They have 
to be dedicated, especially when they are called upon to provide 
quality health care in a dramatic, always demanding environment of long 
hours, critical decisions, and--too often in the VA system--inadequate 
resources. Still somehow, they always manage to give health care the 
devotion, the human touch, the sensitivity and compassion that 
patients, and especially veterans, deserve. While the profession finds 
its genesis in medicine, some have carried nursing to the level of art. 
VA is fortunate to have in its nursing service a wealth of such 
caregivers.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the 
House of Representatives, and as we observe National Nurses Week 
beginning May 6, I want to thank the nurses throughout the VA health 
care system for their hard work, their high standards, their 
exceptional fortitude, and the steady, comforting hand with which they 
care for our veterans.

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