The Chautauqua County Department of Health has announced there is one new case of coronavirus in Chautauqua County. The individual is a woman in her 50s and from the north county.

Chautauqua County statistics:

• There are 38 confirmed cases — 28 are in the north section, four in the east and six in the south.

• Three active cases continue to recover under orders of the Local Health Official per state Public Health Law;

• 31 recovered cases;

• 4 deaths;

• 65 cases under quarantine/isolation orders by the Public Health Director and being monitored. Not all of those being monitored are confirmed to have COVID-19 but have either shown symptoms, are awaiting results, or have risk factors; and

• 1,105 negative test results to date.

NURSES – 2020 SUPER HEROES

“To each and every nurse in Chautauqua County and our County Government nurses, including our Director of Health and Human Services, Christine Schuyler, we thank you,” said County Executive P.J. Wendel. “The words are small, but the gratitude is large. We could not do ‘health’ without you. You have our highest respect.”

Florence Nightingale wisely said, “Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day. If her face, too, so much the better.”

In the midst of this novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this is still sound advice.

This year, National Nurses Week begins on Wednesday, May 6 and ends on Tuesday, May 12, on what would have been Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday. Florence Nightingale is considered one of the most famous nurses in history; she raised the standards of nursing, educated caregivers, and changed the perspective of how nurses were viewed in the healthcare profession.

According to the National Institutes of Health, in 1854, under the authorization of Sidney Herbert, the Secretary of War, Florence Nightingale brought a team of 38 volunteer nurses (that she trained) to care for the British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. At the time, wounded soldiers were commonly afflicted with diseases like typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. Nightingale was concerned with sanitation and its relation to mortality; she had the ability to lead, to organize, and to get things done.

“Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection,” Florence Nightingale once said.

In 2020, this is also still sound advice.

As you have heard often during the COVID-19 crisis, from Christine Schuyler, County Director of Health and Human Services, “Use common sense and good judgement.”

In 1955, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA), a bill for a National Nurse Week was introduced to Congress. It was not until 1974 that President Richard Nixon declared the first official National Nurses Week. In 1982, the ANA and Congress made formal acknowledgment of May 6 as “National Recognition Day for Nurses.” National Nurses Week as we know it today, was designated as a permanent observation in 1994; it is celebrated every year between May 6 and May 12.

The Nightingale Pledge, named in honor of Florence, is a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath. It was created in 1893 and is a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession in the US. Nurses have recited the pledge (or a version of it) at graduation/pinning ceremonies for decades.

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully.

I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug.

I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling.

With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.