National Nurses and National EMS Weeks

By Mackenzie Delp

Throughout the month of May there are two separate weeks that are dedicated to the front-line medical workers. These weeks are National EMS Week and National Nurses Week. This year these weeks are very important to acknowledge because of COVID-19. These medical workers have been working around the clock to try to keep everyone safe and they deserve to be celebrated.

National Nurses Week begins on May 6^th and ends on the 12^th. Nurses have sacrificed more than we can imagine recently, and they deserve, more than ever, to have this entire week dedicated to them. During this week, the best thing that you can do is make sure all of the nurses that you know understand how grateful you are for them and for all of their sacrifices. This doesn’t mean that a fruit basket is in order, but a simple text message or telling them in person would make their day.

National EMS Week falls on May 16^th to the 22^nd. EMS stands for Emergency Medical Services; this means that these are the people that are in an ambulance who help you when you need it most. These people daily risk their lives to step in and save someone when nobody else is able to. Without EMS workers a lot more people would be in much more serious conditions or even dead. Every day EMS workers endanger their lives to go into possibly life threatening situations to save people who they don’t even know and possibly will never see again after they get to the hospital.  Whether or not you personally know an EMS worker they definitely deserve more recognition than they get on a daily basis.

People in the health field have been on the frontline of the recent pandemic and deserve for people to acknowledge their sacrifices and risks that they’ve had to make.

Some students who are in the Allied Health and Sports Medicine shop here at Lenape Tech voiced their opinions about the recognition that EMS workers and nurses receive. Gavin Filippini said, “I think that they are 100% essential and we need them but they are undervalued.” Kamryn Harris said, “I feel as if they don’t get as much recognition as they should. A lot of them just do their job and save lives and I know most of them don’t get thanked for doing it. I feel as if with the pandemic going on there’s not a lot of thanks going towards the medical workers. They are risking their lives everyday and having to spend time away from their families with little appreciation from people. I feel as if they need to get more appreciation and recognition towards them.”