Celebrate “We Care Day” May 9with LincolnHealth nurses by learning how to take charge of your health.

Nurses from LincolnHealth and Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice, will take your blood pressure, help you calculate your body mass index (BMI) (and explain why it is important). They will answer questions about Lyme disease and explain why you should have an advanced directive from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Boothbay Region YMCA in Boothbay Harbor and the Miles Memorial Hospital League Thrift Shop on Church Street in Damariscotta.

Christine Anderson, vice president of Patient Care Services at LincolnHealth, said “We Care Day” is a chance for nurses to celebrate a profession that they love and at the same time be of service to the community. We Care Day is in recognition of National Nurses Week, May 6 to May 12 this year.

“Nursing allows you to be with people in an intimate way when they are at their most vulnerable and that is an incredible privilege,” said Anderson.

Also in recognition of National Nurses Week, LincolnHealth will sponsor a free movie: “The American Nurse,” at the Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta at 6 p.m. on May 9.

“The American Nurse” is about 80 minutes long and follows a day in the life of five nurses in different settings, including a nurse who works in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a nurse who spends his days helping isolated patients in poverty-stricken Eastern Kentucky and the animal-loving nursing director who assembled a menagerie of animals, including llamas, an alpaca, cows, sheep and ring-tailed lemurs, to provide therapy for the residents of a rural Wisconsin nursing facility.

Before the movie, nurses from several different specialties will give a short talk and answer questions about their experience in the profession. They will also be available informally for questions following the movie.

Healthcare has changed dramatically in the past several decades and the part nurses play has changed with it. Today, nurses fill an ever-expanding range of roles and are more in demand than ever.

Nurses are not just bedside advocates for patients; they also coordinate a team-based approach to care, working with physicians and therapists to manage the care of patients with complex conditions.

Kerri Lilly, Inpatient Clinical Nurse Supervisor at LincolnHealth, said nursing is emotionally and physically demanding, but for the right person, it is also deeply rewarding.

When she goes home after a 12-hour nursing shift, Lilly said she is exhausted, but it is a very good kind of tired.