Iowa Nurses Association tries to get more people interested in profession

With a shortage of nurses expected to strike Iowa within a few years, officials with the Iowa Nurses Association hope more women — and men — will take an interest in the vital health care profession. Linda Goldner, the association’s executive director, says today (Tuesday) marks the start of National Nurses Week.Goldner says she’d like to see the citizens of Iowa understand the work registered nurses do to provide quality health care, and to bring about health promotion and wellness. She says if you see a nurse in the next few days, tell them thanks. She says the number of nurses in Iowa is stable for the moment, but Goldner says it’ll soon be changing for the worse.Goldner says there are 38-thousand registered nurses in Iowa, in addition to about ten-thousand L-P-Ns.Many nursing faculty are about to retire while fewer people are chosing nursing as a profession. Goldner says the push is on to bring more people into nursing careers.National Nurses Week is celebrated annually May 6-12, with the theme this year of “Nurses: Lifting Spirits, Touching Lives.” May 12 is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of nursing as a modern profession.