Mr. Speaker, May 8 to 14 is National Nursing Week in Canada. As a former registered nursing assistant, I am delighted to have this
opportunity to salute my former colleagues in Lambton-Middlesex and throughout Canada.
For this year's National Nursing Week, Canada's 253,000 registered nurses will be planning activities to increase knowledge and understanding of nursing contributions to the health of Canadians under the theme: "Your Family's Health: Nurses make a Difference".
No matter where nurses work, be it in the hospital or in the community itself, their focus has always been the family. Nurses provide families with information to prevent them from becoming ill, to help families through challenging times and to make meaningful choices.
Nurses are also interpreters. They take the vast amount of health care knowledge flooding clients and interpret what it means for their health and that of their families.
Because they have the right combination of knowledge and skills for promoting, maintaining and supporting health, nurses are ideally positioned to make a real difference to the health of Canadians and to ensure the healthy future of Canada's medicare system.