We wish to celebrate nurses around the globe for their contributions to healthcare design, especially our very own members! NIHD members are helping to shape the future of healthcare environments through clinical and professional leadership.

Yesterday was Florence Nightingale’s birthday, and marked the end of National Nurses Week. Nurses Week is a time set aside to honor the nursing community for its tremendous contributions. Few have influenced modern hospital practice and physical design, as much as Florence Nightingale. A pioneer in epidemiology, nursing, and hospital administration, she advocated for concepts in hospital design that continue to influence the architecture and design of healthcare facilities. In her book ‘Notes on Hospitals’ published in 1859, Nightingale wrote, “it may seem a strange principle to enunciate as a first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.” Today, nurses continue to carry forward the mission of advocating for innovative healthcare design that incorporates solid clinical workflows and practices. In 2005 Debbie Gregory had the vision of bringing nurses together to align the built environment with the clinical workflow. Thus began the Nursing Institute of Healthcare Design (NIHD). NIHD is committed to providing a forum for the voice of nurses focused on the physical design and environment and its impact on the patient and healthcare team. Our vision is to “Shape the future of healthcare environments through clinical and professional leadership.” Over the past two years, healthcare design has been in the spotlight of our society. As patients overflowed into crowded spaces and hallways, respite space for nurses and other healthcare providers became compromised and, in some instances, non-existent.

We are at a pivotal moment in healthcare. As nurses leave the bedside, we must assess the factors contributing to the satisfaction, including the physical environment. As nurses in design, we can influence and contribute to the future of healthcare in the buildings and spaces that we work on. The work we do impacts all healthcare providers and is essential to their ability to perform their jobs.

As we celebrate our nurses, we must reflect and consider the impact we can have on the future. Healthcare facilities are built to last 50+ years. Your contributions will be felt well beyond the current project you are working on. This is something to celebrate. I want to thank all of you who have taken your clinical experience and practice and applied it to the built environment. I know that many of you work tirelessly to serve as the clinician's voice, and that voice is vital to the future of healthcare. You are contributing to the longevity and satisfaction of nurses and their overall mental health. Thank you to our NIHD Board for their commitment to NIHD and our profession. I appreciate all of you and thank you for your service. I hope that all of you take time to reflect on the impacts that you make in the lives of others and celebrate your accomplishments.