Her Majesty The Queen has led The Royal Family on International Nurses Day with tributes to healthcare workers across the globe as the world continues to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. In a video released on social media on Tuesday, The Queen and members of her family could be heard and seen speaking with various nurses and healthcare workers from across the globe.
From The Queen and The Royal Family this #InternationalNursesDay: Thank you 🌎 pic.twitter.com/YZvREWRlR9
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) May 12, 2020
The Queen is heard talking to Professor Kathleen McCourt, President of the Commonwealth Nurses and Midwives Federation and Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing of which Her Majesty is Patron, and says, “Obviously nurses have had a very important part to play recently.”
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Princess Royal and The Countess of Wessex also made various appearances in video calls to various nurses in various countries.
The Duchess of Cambridge and The Countess of Wessex joined forces in video calls to seven different Commonwealth countries including Australia, India, Malawi, Sierra Leonne, Bahamas, Cyprus and the United Kingdom. When speaking to a nurse in Cyprus and hearing that his ex-wife was a school teacher, The Countess of Wessex joked that she would soon be employed to help with The Duchess of Cambridge’s home schooling efforts with Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The Duchess recently joked in an interview on ITV’s This Morning that Prince George was becoming jealous of Princess Charlotte’s ‘spider sandwiches’ which seemed to be a part of her home learning.
Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall both appeared in their own video messages. Charles thanked nurses across the world saying, “My family and I want to say thankyou to nurses and midwifery staff in this country and all over the world.” Meanwhile, The Duchess of Cornwall recorded messages for the Royal Naval Medical Service, of which she is Commodore-in-Chief, and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, of which she is Patron. Proudly calling nurses “extraordinary”, Camilla went on to say, “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary people.”
The Princess Royal spoke with the programme manager of medical ship in Tanzania which provides medical facilities for those with little or even no access to medical care. The ship is supported by Vine Trust of which Princess Anne is Patron.
International Nurses Day takes place annually on May 12th which is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. 2020 marks 200 years since the birth of Florence Nightingale and as she is considered to be the mastermind behind the birth of modern nursing, this year was set to feature monumental celebrations. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic these celebrations cannot take place.
Other members of The Royal Family to contact nurses include The Duke of Cambridge who spoke to workers at The Royal Marsden hospital of which he is President. Princess Alexandra also took the time to speak with the head of the Naval Nursing Service in her capacity as Patron of Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service.
On each call, members of The Royal Family took a keen interest in how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the work of nurses and how nurses were personally coping with the crisis.
Photo Credit: Flickr