National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12 each year. It is a designated time to reflect on and recognize the contributions of nurses throughout the year and to acknowledge the need for greater investments and resources for nurses across the globe. This year, in the extended Year of the Nurse and Midwife and in the on-going global COVID-19 pandemic, the recognition of nursing contributions is especially compelling. Nurses, including ANAC members, have contributed greatly to the COVID-19 response, setting up testing sites, working front-line in COVID units, supporting their colleagues through trying times of loss, providing community education, administering vaccinations, and much more. We thank you. We also acknowledge and remember the health care colleagues who have been lost to COVID-19, both here in the United States and across the globe. The devastating impact on the nursing workforce and the crisis in health delivery that the pandemic has revealed is only beginning to be recognized and we must continue to shine a light on that.

We are at a critical time as others recognize the importance of the unique perspectives and experiences of nurses at places of influence and decision making. To that end, and as part of our vision to support ANAC members to hold leadership positions, ANAC has joined the Nursing Nominations Coalition, a group dedicated to identifying and supporting the nominations of qualified nurses to federal advisory boards, task forces, administration positions, and other key positions. We are working with the Association of American Colleges of Nursing and 20 other organizations in this effort. For more information, contact Carole Treston at mailto:[email protected].

We write this at the end of Black History month and were pleased in February to share with you portraits of five Black nurse leaders who are ANAC members. In case you missed it, these portraits are viewable on our website (http://ANACnet.org). We also acknowledge the importance of growing the diversity of the nursing workforce and the need for greater investments in preparing people who are underrepresented in nursing, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, and people of all genders. To that end, ANAC is a member of the Nursing Community Coalition, a group of 63 nursing organizations that collectively advocates for a robust and diverse nursing workforce (http://www.thenursingcommunity.org). A major part of this is advocating for better support for Title VIII of the Public Health Act that provides funding for nursing education at all levels, including a focus on educating nurses to practice in rural and medically underserved communities.

This special edition of JANAC that celebrates 40 years of nursing science and contributions to the global HIV response is timely. Its release coincides with Nurses Week and the extension of the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. We thank you for your contributions to nursing and nursing science and celebrate them with you.