Inspirational quotes every nurse should read

“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.”

– Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

“To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; that is to be a nurse.”

– Rawsi Williams, BSN, RN

“The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.”

– William Osler, MD

“Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse.”

– Sister Elizabeth Kenny

“The most important practical lesson than can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe.”

– Florence Nightingale

“Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing.”

– Anonymous Patient

“Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription.”

– Val Saintsbury

N-urturing

U-nderstanding

R-eally great

S-uper smart

E-ager to work hard!

“Nursing encompasses an art, a humanistic orientation, a feeling for the value of the individual, and an intuitive sense of ethics, and of the appropriateness of action taken.”

– Myrtle Aydelotte, PhD, RN, FAAN

“Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.”

– Florence Nightingale

“Whether a person is a male or female, a nurse is a nurse.”

– Gary Veale, RN

“We often think of nursing as giving meds on time, checking an X-ray to see if the doctor needs to be called, or taking an admission at 2:00 a.m. with a smile on our faces. Too often, we forget all the other things that make our job what it truly is—caring and having a desire to make a difference.”

– Erin Pettengill, RN, quoted in RN Modern Medicine

“Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy… nurses are rarely short on caring.”

– Sharon Hudacek, RN

“Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the joy, everyday, while we are ‘just doing our jobs.’”

– Christine Belle, RN, BSN