International Nurses Day

About International Nurses Day

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Dates of International Nurses Day
2026 InternationalMay 12 International Tue, May 12Observances Holiday 2025 InternationalMay 12 International Mon, May 12Observances Holiday 2024 InternationalMay 12 International Sun, May 12Observances Holiday 2023 InternationalMay 12 International Fri, May 12Observances Holiday 2022 InternationalMay 12 International Thu, May 12Observances Holiday
Summary
A day to honour and recognise the tireless work of nurses around the world.

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every May 12th, on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has celebrated this day since 1965.

In 1974, May 12th was chosen to celebrate the International Nurses Day, as it marks the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, who was known as the founder of modern nursing. She fought to lay the foundations and laws to protect the nursing profession and worked on developing it.

Nightingale was called the " The Lady with the Lamp" because she used to go out in the dark heading to the battlefields, while holding a lamp in her hand in order to search for the wounded and injured to help them, during the Crimean War in 1854. Her distinguished role at that time helped in reducing mortality rates among soldiers from 40 to 2%.

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