This article was co-authored by Antoinette Thomas, Chief Experience Officer, Microsoft.

From the once-in-a-lifetime crisis of a global pandemic to cradling a newborn in a NICU, chances are you or someone you know has a story about how a nurse was there in a time of crisis. They’re the ones who race toward an emergency, whether it is an out-of-control virus or a Code Blue call for immediate bedside assistance.

National Nurses Week May 6-12 is the perfect time to acknowledge and thank our nursing care professionals for the extraordinary care and dedication they bring to their professions every day.

At the same time, this is the year to do more.

This is a challenging time for the nursing profession. Burnout, retirements, fewer young people entering nursing, personnel shortages across multiple patient care disciplines and an aging population are placing burdens on both healthcare organizations and nurses themselves. Add in the administrative duties and documentation requirements that are an integral part of a nurse’s job and it is easy to see why today nurses and their teams need not only our thanks, but our support.

Microsoft and Avanade are both, at heart, technology companies that want to make a genuine human impact. When we think about how we can support our nurses, we immediately zero in on how our technologies can ease their workloads in ways that free them up to spend more time with patients and help them find the satisfaction and sense of meaningful contribution that drew them to the nursing profession in the first place.

This is our daily mission; one we are committed to.

Nurses make the difference
The theme of Nurses Week 2024 is Nurses Make the Difference. We think this is the ideal time to bring that theme to life by taking full advantage of nurses’ expertise and perspective at all levels of our healthcare systems.

The world is moving fast and technology is changing the world around us at such a furious pace that it is time to make sure nursing leadership has a seat at the table where strategic decisions about technologies that shape the future of healthcare are made. If not already, Chief Nursing and Clinical Officers should be included at the beginning of discussions about tech innovations that will impact their workforces enabling them to contribute even more to the health and vitality of their organizations.

It just makes sense. Nursing leaders are the ones who know best how technology can be deployed to ease workload burdens and have the most positive impact on both care professionals and their patients.

One way to prepare nursing leaders for this more impactful strategic role is to make sure they are equipped with the skills they need to make a solid business case. Just like CIOs and COOs determine their business needs and create a business case to win support for that investment, C-level nursing executive leaders must have the same opportunity. Without it, decisions will continue to be made without adequate nursing input.

During National Nurses Week 2024, Avanade and Microsoft are proud to stand side by side with nurses around the world. Our global teams are working every day with healthcare and life sciences systems to bring the power of our technologies and deployment expertise where it can make the most positive impact for care professionals and their patients.

And we support the growing movement to include nursing and clinical representation at the highest levels of healthcare systems’ strategic thinking.

Most of all, our message is simple. Thank you to the entire nursing profession for all you do in difficult circumstances to care for our families and our communities. We see you and we appreciate you.

Note: Would you like to know more about how Microsoft and Avanade are working with healthcare systems around the world to improve operations in ways that support their workforces and improve patient care?

We have real-world projects that we would love to tell you about, everything from translating discharge instructions into a patient’s native language to creating shift schedules in the blink of an eye. Learn more about Microsoft Copilot for Healthcare.