WHEREAS,  the nearly 3,400,000 registered nurses in the United States constitute our nation's largest health care profession; and

WHEREAS,  the depth and breadth of the registered nursing profession meet the different and emerging health care needs of the American population in a wide range of settings; and

WHEREAS,  the American Nurses Association, as the voice for the registered nurses of this country, is working to chart a new course for a healthy nation that relies on increasing delivery of primary and preventive health care; and

WHEREAS,  a renewed emphasis on primary and preventive health care will require better utilization of all of our nation's registered nursing resources; and

WHEREAS,  professional nursing has been demonstrated to be an indispensable component of the safety and quality of care of hospitalized patients; and

WHEREAS,  the demand for registered nursing services will be greater than ever because of the aging of the American population, the continuing expansion of life-sustaining technologies and the explosive growth of home health care services; and

WHEREAS,  more qualified registered nurses will be needed in the future to meet the increasingly complex needs of health care consumers in the State; and

WHEREAS,  the cost-effective, safe and high-quality health care services provided by registered nurses will be an increasingly important component of the national health care delivery system in the future; and

WHEREAS,  along with the American Nurses Association, the American Nurses Association - Maine has declared May 6 to 12, 2017 as National Nurses Week, with the theme "Culture of Safety - It Starts with You," in celebration of the ways in which registered nurses strive to provide safe and high-quality patient care and to map out the way to improve our health care system; now, therefore, be it