COEUR d'ALENE - It's the occupation that has been voted the most trusted profession in America for 13 of the past 14 years.

They birth us at the start, and vigil us at the end.

Hard to imagine where we would be without them, these around-the-clock folks who care for us, look after us and get us well.

So Happy Nurses Week, you extraordinary caregivers. You deserve this week, May 6 -12, devoted entirely to you.

"A huge highlight of my job is knowing I am part of something incredibly special - something amazing like the birth of a baby," said Lisa Vixie Winget, neonatal nurse at Kootenai Health, when asked about the highlights of her job. "I have a passion for babies that started when I was 4 and my sister was born. Since then it's always been babies for me. That's one of the things I love most about nursing, the fact that there's a niche for everyone."

While it might not be as well known as other nationally recognized weeks or months, Nurses Week has been celebrated since 1954.

The week traditionally ends on May 12, which is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the 19th century social reformer and acknowledged architect of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence during the Crimean War, where she radically improved mortality rates by exercising her passion for organization, cleanliness, compassion and nutrition.

"The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm," the famous nurse's perhaps most famous quote goes. "For the sick, it is important to have the best."

More than a century and a half later, Nightingale's nurses have a choice of more than 60 specialties in which they can satisfy their career goals.

There are more than three million licensed RNs (registered nurses) in the United States and more than 1,300 of those work in Coeur d'Alene. Local nursing salaries here are the highest in Idaho.

And they are very satisfied employees too.

"I've always liked taking care of folks when they were facing the end of their life," said Cindy Reed, a nurse and Hospice of North Idaho director. "It's our job here to be great communicators and really good pain and symptom managers - you're given the time in this job to do those important things."

The nursing field is one of the bigger draws for North Idaho College students as well. And forget the stereotype of a smiling female. Aspiring nurses are graduating the local college in all shapes and sizes.

Jeff Miller, 54, will be graduating from nursing school next week.

The former chiropractor is the president of the North Idaho College chapter of the Idaho Student Nurses Association, and decided to pursue critical care or recovery room nursing three years ago because he had a passion for helping people.

"It's where I felt I could make the most impact and positive change in the lives of individuals and their families," he said. "I'm a people person - I think I have a knack for quickly establishing trusting and therapeutic relationships."

Winget has been a nurse at Kootenai Health for 31 years, 28 of which have been spent in newborn and family care. That's three decades of helping care for babies and being there for new parents who can be overwhelmed with stress from the life-changing experience of birth.

But does she get attached to her patients?

"Of course I do," she said. "For me, it's very exciting. I get to care for a baby and then I get to watch that baby go home when they are healthy and safe. I get attached to the parents, too - they know that the nurses love their babies."

At the other end of the nursing timeline, Reed said, "Folks are living up until the time they die and my job is to try to help maximize that living. It can be really, really sad here and we shed a lot of tears. But it's also rewarding - especially when a patient has been able to accomplish their goals, such as wanting to attend a family wedding - and it's our job to be sure they are safe enough and comfortable enough to do these things."

So, from beginning to end, thank you, nurses, for being there when we need you.