On Sunday, the world will recognize extraordinary human achievement with the awarding of six Nobel Prizes, including the 2006 Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
No nurse has ever won. That is appropriate, because nursing, while closely related to medicine, is a distinct health science. However, there is no Nobel Prize or comparable annual award (such as a Templeton Prize or a Fields Medal) in nursing. There should be.
Nurses deserve such international recognition. Alfred Nobel's will provided for prizes in Physics; Chemistry; Physiology or Medicine; Literature; and what we now call the Peace Prize. Nobel also specified that the prizes were to be awarded annually to those who had "conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Nurses certainly meet that standard.
Modern nurses have changed the world. Nursing is an independent science that awards doctoral degrees, and nurses have long been on the forefront of health research and practice in many key areas. Nurses have improved community health, often by reinventing existing health systems or creating new ones. They have increased breast-feeding among critically ill newborns, led efforts to understand and remedy domestic violence, and greatly improved the management of life-threatening pain.
In short, nursing leaders have saved and improved countless lives through innovations that have often cut against the grain of formerly accepted practice.
Consider the example of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the fierce, brilliant British nurse. Nightingale's pioneering statistical research, sanitary reforms and structural innovations revolutionized the operation of hospitals, military health care and public health systems worldwide.
Or think of Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965), who founded American nurse-midwifery. She established the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky, which has saved the lives of numerous mothers and children and served as a global model for rural health care delivery.
Among worthy living nurses, consider Susie Kim, the Korean who has pioneered new psychiatric treatments and cost-effective mental health centers for the developing world. Or Elizabeth Ngugi, the Kenyan who has saved countless lives by changing how AIDS care is delivered and studied in ostracized communities.
