It is National Nurses Week; a time to honor a profession that has become increasingly crucial in a world focused on wellness. This celebration begins each year on May 6, and ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Peter Drucker occasionally wrote about nursing in his books, and his influence on the profession is reflected in the 2012 blog post “5 Strategies for Managing Yourself,” by Rose Sherman; professor and director of the Nursing Leadership Institute at Florida Atlantic University Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing.
I included a section in chapter five of my book Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way on healing and our sense of the spiritual, featuring Dr. Jean Watson and her organization, the Watson Caring Science Institute and International Caring Consortium. Watson is Distinguished Professor Emirita and Dean Emerita, University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing. She has written many articles and books, and in 2013 was honored as a “Living Legend,” the highest recognition of honor of the American Academy of Nursing. In particular, I wrote about Watson’s powerful “10 caritas processes,” and commonalities I found to Drucker’s work, in such areas as teaching and learning, decision making and dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity.
In January I had the honor of moderating the journal club meeting of AWHONN/Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, in Washington, D.C. And last November, not long after the book was published, I spoke at AWHONN for the final meeting of 2013 of the the DC Area Health Sciences Libraries (DCAHSL). In doing my research before speaking to those groups, I realized how much the future of nursing has serious implications for health care, education, business and other areas of society. It is a topic that Drucker would have found of great interest and importance. Few of us have not been affected, either directly or through family or friends, by nurses. We owe our thanks and support not just during this week, but throughout the year.