[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9378]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         HONORING FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AND OUR NATION'S NURSES

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, it is May 12, and May 12 is a special day 
because that is the day that the lady with the lamp, Florence 
Nightingale, was born in 1820. Florence Nightingale, the founder of 
modern nursing, the woman who found that cleanliness and hygiene had an 
effect on wound healing, actually helped wound healing and transformed 
military medicine back in the 1800s.
  This day is also the last day of National Nurses Week, and nursing 
tells us over and over again what we all in this Congress need to know: 
it is time to value health. We cannot afford to simply pay for disease 
any longer.
  The American Nurses Association is working to chart a new course for 
a healthy Nation that relies on the increasing delivery of primary and 
preventive health care and a renewed emphasis on primary and preventive 
health care that will require better utilization of our Nation's 
resources.
  Professional nursing has been demonstrated to be an indispensable 
component for the safety and quality of care of hospitalized patients.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I recognize the Nation's 2.7 
million registered nurses.

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