[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 7 (Monday, February 22, 1993)]
[Pages 224-225]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6529--National Visiting Nurse Associations Week, 1993

 February 18, 1993

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Since 1885, countless men, women, and children have been provided 
care in their own communities and homes by the staff of Visiting Nurse 
Associations. These associations are in 422 urban and rural communities 
in 45 States and provide home health care to more than 1,500,000 people. 
The associa- 

[[Page 225]]

tions are voluntary in nature, independently owned, and community based. 
They offer a wide range of services, including hospice care, personal 
care, homemaking, social services, nutritional counseling, specialized 
nursing care, and occupational, physical, and speech therapy by 
registered nurses.
    Historically, the care provided by Visiting Nurse Associations has 
enabled many individuals who are chronically ill or disabled to remain 
in their homes. Such care provides a setting that is familiar to them 
and is characterized by the physical and social support of family, 
friends, and loved ones.
    Today, as an increasing number of people are being released from 
acute care settings and returning to their communities in need of 
complex home health assistance, Visiting Nurse Associations have been 
quick to respond. Whether caring for a low birth-weight baby, assisting 
a person recently released from the hospital following surgery, or 
administering life-sustaining procedures, Visiting Nurse Associations 
have proven to be critical care providers.
    The associations adhere to high standards of quality and provide 
personalized and cost-effective health care and support, regardless of a 
person's ability to pay. They are enthusiastically supported by the 
communities in which they are located, and their resources are regularly 
enhanced by the services of volunteers and the donations of community 
members.
    In recognition of the increasing need for home health care, and the 
significant potential of Visiting Nurse Associations to provide this 
care, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 484, has designated the 
week beginning February 14, 1993, as ``National Visiting Nurse 
Associations Week'' and has authorized and requested the President to 
issue a proclamation in observance of this week.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and 
the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week beginning 
February 14, 1993, as National Visiting Nurse Associations Week. I urge 
all Americans to observe this week with appropriate programs and 
activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day 
of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and seventeenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 12:05 p.m., February 19, 
1993]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
February 23.