Dear Editor:
May 10 to 16 each year since 1985 is National Nurses Week. I have a daughter who is a specialist directly analyzing medically sick patients. So I understand secondhand some of the extra hardships faced by all health workers through the last 18 months. For instance, some medical workers have to be absent, so others have to work extra to fill that needed gap. Likewise, this same daughter had to take time off for school closures and then fill in for others before after she and her son acquired COVID-19 in March (only eligible for a COVID-19 shot this April… strange?). And it’s not only nurses who are facing occupational shortages as many baby boomers retire. Most of the necessary sectors of our sustainability also had similar issues and their own particular problems to contend with. In fact, we all suffered in various ways, from people Laid Off to Seniors confined in a solitary space for a year! That last situation is extremely cruel and imposed without their individual risk choice. But as a Venezuelan friend says about all our claimed covid ‘trauma’ in Canada, we are not used to hardship like her people have experienced every day of their lives.
There is a Nurses week, Pride day, Indigenous Peoples day, Agriculture day, Firefighters day, Beer day, Acne Awareness month, World Obesity day, etc. In fact, there are exactly 150 recognized Health-related days/weeks/months in Canada. But many important occupations and organizations are not recognized in our interdependent specialized World. There could be a Grocery Clerk day, Auto Mechanic week, and a Delivery Person moment. However, thank you to Nurses and also every person involved in hospitals and medical clinics, including Food Services, Maintenance personnel, Secretarial, Technicians, Doctor staff, etc. And thank you to everyone else without a special recognition day, who also keep Communities well provided by their services. We are so fortunate to live here.
Bill Ark, Invermere
