The International Chiari Association (ICA) wants everyone to know that National Nurses Week will take place from Sunday, May 6, until Saturday, May 12. 

May 12 is important because that is Florence Nightingale's birthday.

Nightingale is best remembered as a pioneer of nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods.

"We celebrate National Nurses Week every year," said ICA Founder/President Pete Dal Bello. "Not only is it the right thing to do, but a nurse saved my life many years ago. Without her, there never would have been an ICA. There never would have been a lot of things."

Dal Bello, who was a physical therapy aide at St. Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara in 1994, said that he frequently talks to doctors and nurses while representing the ICA. 

"Whenever I talk to a nurse, and the conversation lasts more than five minutes, I mention the nurse that saved my life and I thank them for their service," Dal Bello added. "In today's busy medical world, you won't always see a doctor. But you will always see a nurse.

"I hope that when someone sees a nurse during National Nurses Week of May 6 to May 12 that they thank them for their service."