Last week a Miss Universe contestant, also a nurse, told the world about her love of nursing – she dressed in a typical nursing outfit (scrubs and steth) ready for work… and … she was at the brunt of some very public ridicule for doing so.

The nursing world spoke out – a line had been crossed. Nurses are proud of their contribution to world health. Nurses contribute more human resource to world health care delivery than other other health profession. We use a multitude of tools to do that… just one of those tools is the humble stethoscope… We use it to listen to many parts of the body – to check and monitor functioning, and to assess when health is compromised. It is a basic tool that many health professionals use everyday. To be mocked for doing so is wrong… Nurses around the world have risen up and taken to social media with #NursesShareYourStethoscope .

Here is my contribution as I travelled through northern NSW and southern Qld – Australia over the weekend. I tweeted ‘selfies’ along the way to cheer on rural nurses everywhere – keeping rural people healthy 🙂 See more @RhondaWilsonMHN

A big shout out to rural nurses everywhere – but especially to the ones in the towns I travelled through on my #NursesShareYourStethoscope tour:

• Armidale, NSW
• Guyra, NSW
• Glen Innes, NSW
• Deepwater, NSW
• Glencoe, NSW
• Tenterfield, NSW
• Ballandean, Qld
• Stanthorpe, Qld
• Warwick, Qld
• Allora, Qld
• Toowoomba, Qld

My challenge to all rural nurses everywhere: #ShowUsYourStethoscope !