How To Use National Nurses Week in Your Healthcare Recruitment Marketing

UPDATED APRIL 2026

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National Nurses Week is May 6-12 every year, ending on Florence Nightingale’s birthday. The American Nurses Association (ANA) designates all of May as Nurses Month, with weekly focus areas covering self-care, nurse recognition, professional development, and community engagement. RN turnover nationally sits above 17%, and replacing one nurse costs an average of more than $60,000. Healthcare marketers can use this week to strengthen employer brand and support retention through employee-led content, the ANA’s Nurses Month framework, and local business partnerships that generate press coverage.

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If you’re a healthcare marketer, you probably see the Canva templates and “Happy Nurses Week!” social posts starting to circulate every May. Most are nice, but completely forgettable. A generic thank-you graphic with a stethoscope clip art isn’t going to move the needle on recruiting or retention, but a well-planned Nurses Week campaign absolutely can.

This year’s American Nurses Association (ANA) theme is “The Power of Nurses,” which coincides with the ANA’s 130th anniversary and the U.S. Semiquincentennial. The ANA has also expanded the celebration into the full month of May. This gives healthcare marketers more room to create content that builds your employer brand, supports retention, and attracts talent. If you’re going to invest the time, let’s make it count.

The Business Case: Why Nurses Week Matters for Recruiting and Retention

Does your leadership team needs convincing that this special week deserves a real marketing investment (and not just a pizza party)? Here are the numbers.

According to the 2026 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report, the national RN turnover rate is 17.6%, a 1.2% increase from the prior year. Hospital turnover overall sits at 18.5%. And the most recent cost data from the 2025 NSI report puts the average cost of replacing a single RN at $61,110, up 8.6% in one year. For the average hospital, that translates to roughly $3.9 to $5.8 million in annual RN turnover costs alone.

And here’s the number that should get your CFO’s attention: each one-percent change in RN turnover costs or saves the average hospital $289,000 per year.

That means anything your marketing team does to support nurse retention has a measurable financial impact. Employer branding and culture-forward content play a direct role. Nurses Week gives you a natural, timely framework to do that work publicly.

The competition for nursing talent is fierce, too. It takes an average of 83 days to recruit an experienced RN, and the RN vacancy rate sat at 9.6% nationally in 2024. Healthcare employment is projected to grow faster than any other sector through 2034, with about 1.9 million openings projected each year. You’re competing for candidates who have options. The organizations that invest in recognition and culture are the ones those candidates notice.

Why this matters for marketers specifically

Of course, you probably don’t set the staffing budget or run the nurse residency program. But you do control the employer brand, the social channels, and the content that prospective candidates see when they’re researching your organization. Nurses Week is one of the best opportunities you’ll get all year to show what your organization’s culture looks like from the inside.

Incorporating Nurses Week Into Your Employer Brand

One of the biggest missed opportunities is treating this as a one-off appreciation gesture instead of folding it into your broader recruitment marketing strategy. Here are some ways to make it work harder.

Feature your real nurses

The most effective Nurses Week content puts your nurses front and center. Short video interviews, quote graphics with real names and departments, day-in-the-life stories on social media; all of these build authenticity in ways that a branded graphic with a stethoscope icon simply can’t. (If you’ve spent any time on a hospital’s Instagram during Nurses Week, you already know which posts get engagement and which ones get scrolled past.)

If you’ve read our healthcare recruitment marketing guide, you already know that employee-generated content is one of the strongest tools in your recruitment toolkit. Nurses Week is the perfect time to capture it. Set up a simple interview station and let your nurses talk about what they love about the work in their own words.

Connect recognition to professional development

The ANA’s “The Power of Nurses” theme this year is about recognizing nurses’ impact on healthcare outcomes and policy. Your Nurses Week content can reflect that same energy by centering investment. “We’re helping you grow” lands harder with candidates than “thanks for everything.”

Feature nurses who’ve earned certifications or completed leadership programs. Talk about the continuing education opportunities your organization offers. This kind of content speaks directly to prospective candidates who want to grow their careers. According to workforce research, this is one of the top factors nurses weigh when choosing an employer.

Build content around retention, too

Recognition and retention feed each other. A 2026 JAMA Network Open study found that most RNs are satisfied with nursing as a career but dissatisfied with their employers. The reasons they leave (mostly staffing and scheduling) are the same reasons they’d come back if addressed.

Your campaign is a chance to publicly commit to those things. If your organization has made improvements in scheduling flexibility or nurse-to-patient ratios, Nurses Week is the time to talk about it with specifics and proof. Candidates are paying attention, even if they’re not actively applying yet.

How To Turn Nurses Week Into a Full Month of Content

The ANA recommends recognizing all of May as Nurses Month, with four weekly focus areas that give you a built-in content calendar:

Week 1 (May 1-7): Self-care and well-being

Focus on mental health and physical wellness, and how important these things are for nurses.

• Share your organization’s wellness resources, EAP programs, or staff support initiatives
• Post short video interviews with nurses about how they decompress after tough shifts
• Feature your organization’s mental health benefits or peer support programs in a social post
• Partner with a local yoga studio or wellness brand to offer a free class or discount for nurses
• Create a “what’s in my work bag” or “my shift ritual” content series that normalizes self-care habits

Week 2 (May 8-14): Honoring leading nurses

This covers National Nurses Week itself (May 6-12). Spotlight the nurses who are shaping your organization through leadership and mentorship.

• Run a daily social series profiling nurse leaders across departments
• Nominate a nurse leader for your state nurses association’s annual awards (most have a nomination process)
• Organize a photo event or meet-up at a local “Nurses Light Up the Sky” landmark (the ANA is targeting 250 illuminated buildings in 2026, up from 206 in 2025)
• Film a short thank you video from your CEO or CMO that names specific nurses and teams
• Share a timeline or career path graphic showing how a nurse at your organization grew from new grad to leadership

Week 3 (May 15-21): Professional development

Share resources and growth opportunities with your nursing staff.

• Write a blog post or social series about certifications and tuition reimbursement programs your organization offers
• Interview a nurse who recently completed a certification or advanced degree about what the experience was like
• Host a lunch-and-learn or virtual Q&A on career pathways within your organization
• Share a list of upcoming CE (continuing education) opportunities and internal training sessions
• Spotlight a nurse preceptor or mentor and let them talk about what they look for in new nurses

Week 4 (May 22-31): Community engagement

Educate your community about what nurses do beyond the bedside.

• Partner with a local school or career center to host a “what it’s like to be a nurse” session
• Create content about nurses’ roles most people don’t see: advocacy, public health, policy work, research
• Organize a community health screening or wellness event staffed by your nurses
• Feature nurses who volunteer or serve on boards outside of work
• Invite your nurses to do a social media takeover focused on community impact during their shift or off-hours

By planning content across the full month, your social channels stay fresh. This way, you’re not burning through all your best material in a single week. It also gives you the chance to involve different nurses and departments in the content, which builds internal buy-in for future campaigns.

Getting Local Press Coverage for Your Nurses Week Efforts

To get press, you need to do something newsworthy. That’s always been true, and it’s especially true during a week when every hospital in the country is posting about nurses. This year, try some of these approaches.

Partner with local businesses

Chipotle and other national chains have offered free food for nurses during Nurses Week for years, and it gets covered every time. Your organization can do the same thing on a local level. Partner with a local restaurant or coffee shop to offer something to nurses in your market. It’s a relatively low-cost gesture that gets your brand in front of the local nursing community and gives local media a story to cover.

Tie into the “Nurses Light Up the Sky” campaign

If a landmark in your city is being illuminated, organize a meet-up or photo event for your staff. It’s a visual, shareable moment that doubles as press outreach.

Announce something concrete

If your organization is launching a new nurse residency program, expanding benefits, or opening new positions, tying that announcement to Nurses Week gives it additional context and media relevance.

Pitch a real story

Local reporters cover Nurses Week every year and they’re looking for human-interest angles. A nurse who’s been at your organization for 30 years, a team that handled a crisis with exceptional care, a new grad who found their calling; these are the stories that get picked up. A one-page pitch with a specific person and a compelling detail will outperform a generic press release every time.

Social Media Ideas for National Nurses Week That Stand Out

Generic Nurses Week posts get lost in a sea of identical content. If you want yours to land, do something different from the branded quote graphic everyone else is posting.

Use the official hashtags

#ThePowerOfNurses and #NursesLightUpTheSky are the ANA’s official 2026 tags. Using them gets your content into a broader conversation and in front of nurses outside your organization.

Plan a content series across the week

A nurse spotlight each day (or one per week throughout May) gives you consistency that builds an audience and gives the algorithm more to work with.

Channel takeovers are another strong move here

A day-in-the-life Instagram takeover by an L&D nurse looks completely different from one by an ER nurse, and both are more compelling than anything your marketing team can script from the outside.

Think video first

Short-form video performs well on every platform right now. A 60-second interview clip with a nurse talking about why they love the work is more engaging than a designed graphic, and it costs almost nothing to produce.

Engage with the conversation, too

Comment on nurses’ posts. Share content from your state nurses association and respond to people who tag your organization. The social channels that perform best during awareness weeks are the ones that participate in the conversation instead of just publishing into it.

Nurses Week Isn’t Just for Healthcare Organizations

You don’t have to employ nurses to participate in Nurses Week. Brands like Chipotle and Starbucks have built entire promotional campaigns around nurse appreciation, and they get significant media coverage for it year after year.

If you’re a marketer in a non-healthcare industry but your brand intersects with the healthcare community, This week is an opportunity to show support for a workforce your customers care about. The goodwill and press coverage that come with it are a bonus.

Need a Nurses Week Marketing Campaign That Does More Than Check a Box?

Nurses Week doesn’t have to be a scramble for last-minute social posts. With a little planning and a willingness to let your nurses tell their own stories, it can be one of the most productive months on your content calendar. The organizations that treat May as a recruiting and retention opportunity (and not just an appreciation checkbox) are the ones that get the most out of it.

PriceWeber helps healthcare organizations build recruitment marketing campaigns that connect with the people you’re trying to reach. If you want a second set of eyes on your Nurses Week plan we’ll walk through it with you.

Or, call us at 502-499-4209 to talk with one of our experts today.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• National Nurses Week is May 6-12, and the ANA recommends treating all of May as Nurses Month with four weekly focus areas that double as a content calendar for healthcare marketers.
• The 2026 theme is “The Power of Nurses” (#ThePowerOfNurses), tied to the ANA’s 130th anniversary and the “Nurses Light Up the Sky” campaign targeting 250 illuminated landmarks.
• RN turnover is 17.6% nationally, and replacing one RN costs an average of $61,110, so anything marketing does to support retention has a measurable financial return.
• The most effective Nurses Week content features real employees in their own words, connects appreciation to professional development, and speaks to the culture improvements candidates are looking for.
• Healthcare marketers should plan content across the full month of May (self-care, nurse spotlights, professional development, community engagement) rather than compressing everything into a single week.
• Local press coverage comes from doing something newsworthy: partnering with local businesses, tying into the Nurses Light Up the Sky campaign, or pitching human-interest stories about specific nurses.