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The heartbeat in healthcare is the designated nurse and is the first and last person a patient sees during a hospital visit or routine check-up. Today we celebrate them on National Nurses Day. They are all stars who are underappreciated in our healthcare system. Check out our list of celebs you didn’t know were nurses before fame.
The “Lady with the Lamp” – or as she is widely known, Florence Nightingale – founded modern nursing at the end of the 19th century. Her strict use of hand washing and hygiene practices while caring for wounded soldiers in the Crimean War helped reduce the death rate from 42 percent to 2 percent, ushering in the world of nursing as we know it today. On May 6, the United States highlights the important role nurses play in our lives by celebrating National Nurses Day.
National Nurses Day is the first day of National Nursing Week, which ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
In February of 1974, President Nixon announced that National Nurses Week is celebrated annually in May. Over the next eight years, various nursing organizations including the American Nurses Association (ANA) mobilized to support calls for a “National Recognition Day for Nurses” on May 6, which President Ronald Reagan eventually proclaimed in 1982.
Nurses make up the highest percentage of the health care workforce in the United States with nearly 3 million nurses working in the country today. Nurses are more likely to be injured on the job than construction workers, and they walk an average of 5 kilometers per shift. This is just a normal day, but with the imminent effects of the coronavirus, nurses’ jobs have been even more challenging.
What better way to celebrate their continued efforts in healthcare than an entire week dedicated to their dedicated service. The most common tradition of expressing gratitude to nurses around the world is to throw a huge party for them. Usually, the party is hosted by faculty and medical staff and features a room filled with decorations, foods, and gift cards.
There will never be enough for the work that these dedicated individuals do, but we want to raise awareness of the importance of this job by celebrating this list of celebrities who didn’t know they were nurses before they became famous.
Happy National Nurse’s Day! Check it out below:
1. Bonnie Hunt
Source: Bonnie Hunt
Hunt is best known for her roles in feature films such as Jerry Maguire And Cheaper by the dozen. The actress volunteered to work as a candy master at a local hospital when she was a teenager, according to Chicago Tribune. At the suggestion of her father, she entered nursing school, although at first she did not plan to finish because her heart was not in it. After her father’s death, she worked with a patient who had a special relationship with her family, and this encouraged her to continue nursing.
2. Naomi Judd
Source: Naomi Judd
You may know Naomi Judd as a lovable country singer, or about her daughter Winona but before she had much success, she worked as a nurse in an intensive care unit. “While working in hospitals in Nashville, Tennessee, I worked mainly in the ICU, the ICU,” she told Everyday Health. “If you have ever watched medical shows on TV, you know that the intensive care unit can be very fast-paced and stressful, with life and death situations. Many times I have been stuck with needles and even bodily fluids on me.” I left nursing in 1984.
The singer recently lost her battle with mental health and died by suicide. Relax Naomi.
3. Tina Turner
Source: Tina Turner
Before becoming a music icon, Tina Turner held one of the toughest jobs. After graduating from high school, the famous singer worked as a nurse assistant at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. She recently had her first child and has been trying to make ends meet even though she has always been fond of singing. Turner said in an interview with rolling rock in 1986. “Then Ike lost his singer and asked me if I was going to sing.”
The rest is history.
4. Kim Zolciak – Berman
Source: Kim Zolciak-Biermann
The reality star and mom of six was previously a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) in both Georgia, where she now resides, and Connecticut. “The day I graduated from nursing school, I was so proud of myself,” she wrote on social media.
5. Adrian Holmes
Source: Adrian Holmes
You’ve seen it on TV shows like Bel Air And supernatural, but Holmes is more than just a reserved and busy working actor. Following in the footsteps of his nurse mother, Holmes first worked in the medical profession as a more stable career option. He studied nursing at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and while doing so, he worked in many different areas of healthcare including obstetrics, pediatrics, and a spine unit, according to Vancouver Courier.
6. Jennifer Stone
Source: Jennifer Stone
Jennifer Stone became a fan favorite after she starred as Harper Finkel on Disney Channel Waverly Place processors for five years. Today, the young actress continues to act but has added the role of a registered nurse to her resume.
Stone took to Instagram in April 2020 to share news of her new profession. “A very good friend of mine … has indicated to me that today is #World Health Day,” she wrote in the post. “It’s also the day that I transitioned from volunteer, then student nurse, and is now an RN resident. I just hope to rise to the level of all the wonderful healthcare providers on the front lines now as I prepare to join them.”
7. Kate Gosselin
Source: Kate Gosselin
America met Kate Gosselin for the first time when she was chasing an eight-kid soccer team on the TLC reality show John and Kate Plus 8. Before her exciting family life, she was a nurse. Jocelyn specifically worked as a nurse in the labor and delivery room after completing nursing school at Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Pennsylvania. She left the job when she and then-husband John Jocelyn started their family with twins Kara and Maddie.
While she renewed her nursing license in 2009, according to daily newsIt is understood that Jocelyn has not returned to work at the hospital.
