It’s Wednesday, May 11, and we’d be remiss in not mentioning that 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 nurses in educational settings, as well as their impact on student achievement. According to the National Association of School Nurses, more than 60,000 professionals 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." Of course, National School Nurse Day is part of National Nurses Week, which is annually recognized May 6 through May 12. We should also point out that the latter date, May 12, is the birthday of one Florence Nightingale, who's hailed as a pioneer of modern nursing. Today, we’d like to express our gratitude to some other pretty important nurses – particularly Michael DuBois, Daniella Gorman, Azita Ghaderifard, Kathy Hartman, Regina Keenan, Sheri Kulungian, Samantha Lutz, Vicki McRobbieralls, Linda Mirshafiee, Janet Penny-Cook, Linda Scott-Katz and Marcia Noonan. All are members of IUSD's nursing team, and they do a great job keeping our students healthy, safe and ready to learn. For more information about IUSD’s Health Services department, click here, or visit www.iusd.org.