Doctors Thank Nurses at Northwestern Medicine Through Song

Doctors at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill. put down their medical instruments and picked up musical instruments to thank nurses and other support staff with an outdoor concert on Friday, May 12.

Surgeon Anthony Altimari, MD, led the headlining band Vital Signs, followed by Critical Care Specialist Jeffrey Huml, MD, and ICU Nurse Katie Ragona, RN, who soothed the crowd with Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue". Internal Medicine Physician Marc Conte-Russian, MD, got the crowd grooving with some 90s hip hop from Blackstreet. Orthopedic surgeon Charles Lupo, MD, sported a pair of cool sunglasses as he channeled Eric Clapton and sang "I Shot the Sheriff".

Research has shown listening to music can lower heart rate and cortisol levels, release endorphins, reduce burnout and depression, and provide a distraction from stressors.

Each year during National Nurses Week, May 6 through 12, nurses are celebrated and honored for innovating, educating and shaping the future of health care, making better medicine possible for patients and each other.

National Nurses Week ends on May 12, in honor of Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing due to her heroic and pioneering work during the Crimean War (1853 to 1856).