Have you thanked a nurse this week? You should. One reason, it's National Nurses week. Need more? We've got 10:

1. Nurses have their finger on the pulse of the nation: Literally.
2. There are a lot of them: About 4-million nurses to 1-million doctors.
3. There still aren't enough of them: Estimates say we're going to be short by as many as a million in coming years.
4. They're worth their weight in gold: Just ask a doctor who's been on the other side of the stethoscope.
5. They dispense more than TLC: How much? "A significant portion of health care activities," to be precise.
6. They practice more than medicine: Talk to the family of this patient, and try not to cry.
7. They're round-the-clock caregivers: Most of them leave their patients at work to go care for their families at home.
8. They go to school for years: Two, four years, more...depending on their specialty. And they're always game for more.
9. They're tough as nails: Nothing (not even a hurricane and a flood) gets between a nurse and assigned rounds.
10. They defy cliches: A job "for girls?" So 20th century. Forget that women like this one and this make the whole "for girls" a misnomer that should never, ever be used as an insult. Nursing is a challenge for anyone. There's a reason a campaign reached out to prospective Lawrence Nightingales with the slogan, "Are You Man Enough to Be a Nurse?".

What else do we know about nurses? They love what they do, they've got crazy hard jobs, and they work best (and will stick around) when their employers are behind them. 

We're behind you, nurses! 

Happy National Nurses Week; and thanks for all your hard work.