As you may know May 6-12 is National Nurses Week.

I am a Registered Nurse at Affinity Medical Center and although this is a week to recognize nurses, I would like to thank the people of Massillon and the surrounding area for the privilege of allowing my colleagues and me to care for you and your families.

Sometimes, it’s only a few hours we get to know each other and then there are times our contact is much longer.

There are many of you who I have had the pleasure of sharing a laugh with, and others I have been honored to share the tears of final grief with. Our job comes with great responsibility, but there is also an enormous amount of satisfaction when at the end of the day we know we have given all we could, selflessly.

Our profession is constantly changing and evolving, but always know that, you — the patient — is what drives us. There is research that shows when a nurse exceeds four patients there is a 7 percent increase in mortality for every patient a nurse has beyond that on a medical surgical or medical telemetry floor. This is just one of the challenges we are trying to achieve again for you, the patient.

They call health care an industry. I worked in a factory at one time, and I must disagree.

In health care, you don’t shut things off at lunch or at the end of the shift, and as nurses we know we must be ever vigilant and that the knowledge and care we provide must be of the highest excellence, regardless of profits. Although we have an employer, our loyalty and our legal duty lies with our patients.

I again want to thank the community for their support and allowing us into your lives. We, in turn, commit to continue serving you to the very best of our abilities.

Happy Nurses Week to all the nurses out there and to the rest of you, thank you.

Bob McKinney, RN
Massillon