Billings Clinic celebrates Nurses Week, unveils sculpture honoring nurses
Billings Clinic unveiled a new sculpture on its downtown Billings campus on Monday, May 10, honoring nurses as part of its annual Nurses Week celebration.
The statue, called A Healer’s Touch, pays tribute to the nurses of Billings Clinic past and present for their extraordinary kindness, dedication to safety, courage and the skillful and compassionate care they provide to patients and their families every day.
“Nurses are at the very heart of what we do in health care,” said Laurie Smith, Billings Clinic Chief Nursing Officer. “The last year has only served to highlight what an incredible contribution nurses make every day. They are advocates, healers and leaders. They promote hope and bring us a sense of calm. This sculpture is a lasting thanks to all of the nurses who’ve served at Billings Clinic.”
Hand-carved from Serpentine stone by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe, the sculpture is just over three feet tall and weighs 180 lbs. It is a larger version of the sculpture given to Billings Clinic DAISY Award winning nurses, depicting the unique relationship nurses create with their patients. The DAISY Foundation is a national organization created to express gratitude for extraordinary nursing and provide meaningful recognition of nurses.
The design stems from the Shona Tribe’s respect for the traditional healers of their own tribe and represents the ideas of compassion, kindness and love, which can be recognized across all cultures. The DAISY Foundation purchases these statues directly from the tribe and prides itself on the ability to connect the efforts of extraordinary nurses across the world to the creators of these meaningful sculptures.
Monday’s dedication is part of a week-long celebration of nurses at Billings Clinic in recognition of Nurses Week. In addition to the sculpture dedication, Billings Clinic will hold its annual nursing awards – honoring extraordinary nurses, support team members and departments from 2020 and 2021 – on Wednesday, May 12, at 1 p.m. at Dehler Park. It will also be delivering goodie boxes filled with treats to Billings Clinic nurses across the region and will hold a night shift breakfast on May 14 for teams who work overnight.
“While this week is dedicated to celebrating the nursing profession, we appreciate the vital work nurses do every day of the year,” Smith said. “To every nurse out there, thank you.”
(The Healer’s Touch sculpture pictured in the Billings Clinic Healing Garden on May 10, 2021.)
