Culture of Safety, Happy National Nurses Week!

National Nurses Week 2016

Dear AAOHN Members:

National Nurses Week 2016 begins Friday, May 6. On behalf of AAOHN, I am proud to express our support for this special week when we celebrate the contributions nurses like each of you make every day for positive changes for patients or workers whose safety and health are entrusted to your care.

We also gladly join our colleagues in ANA and across the nursing profession during this National Nurses Week to emphasize the importance of a Culture of Safety -- yours and workers' alike. A culture of safety is one where nurses as workers feel supported, listened to and understood. A culture of safety fosters transparency, accountability and results.

No one knows better than occupational and environmental health nurses that we are called on to foster open conversations about safety issues, such as fatigue, stress, safe patient handling, workplace violence, incivility and bullying, or other hazardous work conditions.

Whether you work in healthcare, business and industry, or another setting, I encourage you to take the "Culture of Safety – It starts with You" message to heart this week and throughout the year as you consider your own measures to promote a safe working environment for you and your nursing colleagues as well as the workers in your workplaces.

Thanks for all you do and thanks for being a nurse!

Jeannie Tomlinson