First Lady to Attend Annual Nurses Week Governor’s Tea

First Lady to Attend Annual Nurses Week Governor’s Tea


Augusta, Maine - First Lady Ann LePage will attend the Coalition of Maine Nurses Tea at the Blaine House on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 2:30 pm. The Coalition of Maine Nursing Organizations has held the event for the past 10 years. The expected attendance for this year’s tea is nearly 70 nurses.

The tea will provide an opportunity for Maine nurses to meet each other, and network. Invitations were sent to the Director of Nursing in all Maine’s hospitals, home health care agencies, and long term care facilities. Additionally, First Lady Ann LePage will read the Nurses Week Proclamation, which was issued by Governor Paul LePage, to the attendees.

“It is so important that we recognize the wonderful work done by Maine’s nurses,” said First Lady Ann LePage. “These individuals provide such wonderful care for Mainers, ensuring they deliver quality healthcare. They provide our families and patients with support during what can be very challenging times,” continued Mrs. LePage.

Proclamation language is as follows:

WHEREAS, the nearly 3.1 million registered nurses in the United States comprise our nation's largest health care profession; and

WHEREAS, the depth and breadth of the registered nursing profession meets the different and emerging health care needs of the American population in a wide range of settings; and

WHEREAS, the American Nurses Association, as the voice for the registered nurses of this country, is working to chart a new course for a healthy nation that relies on increasing delivery of primary and preventive health care; and

WHEREAS, a renewed emphasis on primary and preventive health care will require the better utilization of all of our nation's registered nursing resources; and

WHEREAS, professional nursing has been demonstrated to be an indispensable component in the safety and quality of care of hospitalized patients; and

WHEREAS, the demand for registered nursing services will be greater than ever because of the aging of the American population, the continuing expansion of life-sustaining technology and the explosive growth of home health care services; and

WHEREAS, that more qualified registered nurses will be needed in the future to meet the increasingly complex needs of health care consumers in this community; and

WHEREAS, the cost-effective, safe and quality health care services provided by registered nurses will be an ever more important component of the U.S. health care delivery system in the future; and

WHEREAS, along with the American Nurses Association, the Coalition of Maine Nursing Organizations has declared the week of May 6-12 as NATIONAL NURSES WEEK with the theme Nurses: Advocating, Leading, Caring, in celebration of the ways in which registered nurses strive to provide safe and high quality patient care and map out the way to improve our health care system.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, PAUL R. LEPAGE, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim May 6-12, 2012 as

NATIONAL NURSES WEEK

throughout the State of Maine, and urge all citizens to recognize this observance.