It's Wednesday, May 12, and we think it's an especially good day to thank our local school nurses. After all, today has been designated as National School Nurse Day. Established in 1972, National School Nurse Day was created to foster a better understanding of the role of school nurses in the educational setting. These days, the profession is recognized as a specialized practice that advances the well-being, academic success and life-long achievement of students. To that end, more than 66,000 school nurses across the country "promote health and safety; intervene with actual and potential health problems; provide case management services; and actively collaborate with others to build student/family capacity for adaptation, self management, self advocacy, and learning," according to the National Association of School Nurses. Of course, National School Nurse Day is part of National Nurses Week, recognized May 6 through May 12. The latter date, not coincidentally, is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, considered a pioneer of modern nursing. Today, we'd like to express our gratitude to some other pretty important nurses - particularly IUSD school nurses Azita Ghaderifard, Kathy Hartman, Regina Keenan, Dee Knapper, Sheri Kulungian, Samantha Lutz, Vicki McRobbieralls, Linda Mirshafiee, Sally Valentine, Norma Yockel, Michael DuBois, Linda Scott-Katz and Marcia Noonan. So thank you, school nurses, for keeping our students safe, healthy and ready to learn. And for more information about the IUSD's Health Services department, click here, or visit www.iusd.org.