HPAE Celebrates Nurses Week

During Nurses Week, we celebrate all that nurses and healthcare professionals do to advocate for our patients and to deliver quality care. Nurses and health professionals in all of the HPAE locals play a major role in making our health care system better.

Below, several HPAE leaders speak out on their view of Nurses Week and the vital role of nurses:

Karen Allen, RN – Local 5105 @ Virtua Health

I knew I wanted to be a nurse in the 8th grade. I have no idea why, but I never changed my mind-not even after a horrible experience working as a nurse’s aide in a nursing home during college. I quit in 1 day and went happily back to waitressing until graduation. Thirty-seven years later, after countless missed holidays with my family, frequently missed breaks, physical and mental exhaustion, I wouldn’t change jobs for anything. The impact we make on people’s lives is immeasurable, and that still makes me happy, and proud, to be a nurse.

Michelle Silvio, RN – Local 5131 @ Inspira Health

My youngest daughter was very ill for the first 22 months of her life. During that time, I had to depend on people I didn’t know to protect her, to care for her and to sometimes care for me. Those people were the nurses who became like our family during a very sad time.

I never forgot those nurses and I wondered how it felt to go home from work knowing that you did something genuinely worthwhile every day. We were lucky and my daughter recovered. A few years later I went to nursing school and now work in an emergency department. Some days I help save a life, some days I help relieve pain and some days, I just hold the hand of a patient or family member who is scared like I was… and I go home knowing how those nurses felt. What we do makes a difference and I am proud to call myself a nurse.

Priscilla Surles-Burrus, RN – Local 5112 @Cornerstone Behavioral Health Hospital of Union County

I’ve been a psychiatric nurse for more than 14 years now. I realize Nursing is calling and I am thankful that our patient successes outshine their challenges.

Bernie Gerard, HPAE Vice President

We are proud to represent nurses and healthcare workers who show dedication, devotion, and caring to every patient they encounter.
During Nurses Week we take the time out to salute and thank each and every one of you for the work you do.