The day is celebrated on 12 May every year to commemorate Florence Nightingale's birthday.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of her birth, 2020 has been designated as the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in recognition of the contribution nurses make, and the risks associated with nursing shortages. The theme for this year is Nursing the World to Health, with a focus on the “true value of nurses to the people of the world”. Given the current health crisis the world finds itself in, this theme rings particularly true.
