Tucson Medical Center Health (TMC) is celebrating National Nurses Week with a series of events honoring the nurses who provide care across Southern Arizona.
The week-long celebration began Monday with an opening ceremony on the nursing patio at TMC.
Kara Snyder, registered nurse and assistant vice president of nursing for critical care at TMC, says it's a time to show appreciation to our nurse heroes, and it's also celebrated every year on the week of Florence Nightingale's birthday.
Florence Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing.
"We welcomed the Nursing Honor Guard and a number of our folks around the organization to just kick us off," Kara Snyder said.
Snyder has been working in healthcare for 31 years. Her mother, who has been a nurse for 50 years and recently retired, inspired her to enter the field. Snyder said recognizing nurses for their hard work and dedication is essential.
"Nursing is a really fascinating profession right now. Nurses are in every single aspect of one's healthcare from the clinics all the way through, even into hospice and everywhere in between," Snyder said.
"It's a really challenging time for healthcare, and so we have to get really creative with how we meet the needs of people from every aspect in our community. So I think as far as recognizing our nurses, to me it's a reinforcement in our call to service and getting involved in the decisions in healthcare that are affecting our communities."
Snyder says it's rewarding taking care of patients, seeing patients and their families, through some of their darkest moments and through some of their greatest joys.
"Being part of that and also I think growing our nurses and seeing our nurses give and seeing our nurses grow. Some of the folks I've seen as new grads are now people I get to call my mentors, so lifting each other up and growing together and seeing people develop their skills and their knowledge to make people healthier. I mean it's truly a gift," Snyder said.
Madison Bowers, a registered nurse in the pediatrics unit, has been in the role for about two and a half months. She said she loves helping families from all different walks of life.
"No family is exactly the same, and that's just really unique to get to be a part of that," Bowers said.
Her path to pediatric nursing was personal. Being a mom who has stood on the other side, inspired her to pursue the career.
"I was the mother of a chronically ill child when I was technically a pediatric patient myself at 17, 18. And so full circle, now I am here getting to be one of the nurses that I really relied on, so I get to be that for all my pediatric families," Bowers said.
The celebration continues Tuesday with an awards ceremony featuring nominations from patients, staff, and families. Additional events for nurses are scheduled throughout the week, ending with the Tucson Nurses Week Foundation Gala on Saturday.
"That's a time for us to recognize nurses across this entire community. We recognize 50 nurses every year at the foundation gala," Snyder said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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