Celebrating nursing

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world each year on May 12, Florence Nightingale's birth date (1820). Her theories were published in Notes on Nursing in 1860 and contributed significantly to the development of public health and leadership in hospital management. On Nurses Day, however, it is important to acknowledge the contribution of other great nurses in history, such as Mary Seacole, and to celebrate the contribution that nurses continue to make to the health and wellbeing of society.