LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky and southern Indiana are celebrating nurses who are just joining the workforce and those who have been in it decades this National Nurses Week.
On Monday, which is also National Nurses Day, more than 30 Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC) nursing graduates walked across the stage for JCTC's annual Nurse Pinning Ceremony.
About 90% of the graduates have already secured a job before graduating.
"Seeing the demand for health care, I decided that's my calling," nursing graduate Nate Kirby said. "Almost every hospital is understaffed in need of nurses, techs, nurse practitioners, anything in the healthcare field they can use. With us 30 something graduates, hopefully we can help that some."
Kirby will starting his job at Louisville's Brook Hospital after graduation.
Other graduates, like Madisyn Huelsman, found their calling to become a nurse close to home.
"My dad got really sick a few years back and we didn't really have any healthcare people in our family," Huelsman said. "Being that somebody to have healthcare knowledge just kickstarted that for me to go ahead and be that advocate not only for my family but for my patients, as well."
She worked with COVID infusion patients during the height of the pandemic, and said working in the thick of COVID had nurses coming together like a family.
"It's good to know there are still good people, even after something like the pandemic, who still want to go into healthcare; it's just reassuring to know that...it's positive," Huelsman said.
Maybe one day, the nursing graduates will be walking across the Big Four Bridge to celebrate nursing day with their peers, like dozens of Baptist Health nurses did Monday evening. They walked side-by-side into the sunset to celebrate Nurse Appreciation Week.
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