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ELKINS -- National Nurses Week, which honors all that nurses do for their communities, is prompting tributes from politicians as well as discounts and benefits from nationwide food chains.
On Wednesday, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden visited University Medical Center in Las Vegas to thank nurses in honor of National Nurses Day, which is the first day of National Nurses Week, which runs through May 12.
Dr. Biden, joined by Nevada senators and congressional representatives, as well as the Service Employees International Union, passed out frosted sugar cookies baked in the shape of the White House to nurses at their shift change.
Special deals offered during National Nurses Week include a Heroes Discount at Outback Steakhouse, which offers 10% off to nurses, doctors and medical staff with a valid medical ID.
IHOP is offering 25 percent off meals for healthcare workers with an ID.
All nurses and health care workers are eligible to receive a free entree at Chipotle.
Each Cinnabon bakery is offering its own promotion to celebrate National Nurses Week.
A popular tweet circulating Thursday in honor of National Nurses Week reads, "Save one life, you're a hero. Save 100 lives, you're a nurse." -- Author Unknown.
Nurses have been in the news lately, and not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January, President Joe Biden appointed Susan Orsega to serve as acting surgeon general. Orsega is one of only a handful of nurses to have been appointed to fill the role of surgeon general.
"Rear Admiral Orsega is a longtime champion of public health whose visionary leadership has strengthened health care equity and access for our nation," American Association of Nurse Practitioners president Sophia L. Thomas said in a statement.
National Nurses Week is inclusive of all nurses, but there are some more specific celebrations throughout. May 8 brings particular attention to student nurses on National Student Nurses Day, and May 12 is International Nurses Day and National School Nurse Day. All different types of nurses contribute to their communities in a myriad of ways, and this week is the time for their communities to show their support back to the nursing profession.
"The American Nurses Associated (ANA) has extended the Year of the Nurse and Midwife into 2021, and we again want to use this opportunity to highlight all that nurses are, have been, and will be in our society," the website Nurse.com stated.
"We're seeing nurses struggling with incredible challenges to their mental health and wellbeing, and we're still hospital systems pushed to the brink," the website Nurse.com stated. "But, despite all of this, nurses and other healthcare practitioners are continuing to step forward in support; they're not giving up, and they're not backing down.
"Plain and simple, nurses are doers, and they will keep on doing until everyone receives the care they need… As traditional nursing roles expand in scope and nurses find themselves working in direct patient care or building healthier communities in a variety of other ways, there has grown an entirely new set of challenges for nurses to solve. Now more than ever, nurses are relied upon to use their unique skill sets to progress in ways that health care hasn't for decades."