Each year we celebrate Nurses Week beginning on May 6 and ending on May 12, Florence Nightingale's birth date. This year's national theme is Nurses: Building a Healthier America.

We, at UnitedHealth Group, wish to extend our sincere appreciation to the more than 6,000 nursing professionals that work in various roles in our company, and the 2.5 million nurses nationwide that each and every day help fulfill UnitedHealth Group's mission of helping people live healthier lives. Nurses have long been looked at with appreciation and admiration, and even today are rated the most trusted health care professionals.

UnitedHealth Group recently established a Center for Nursing Advancement that focuses on the contribution that nurses make every day and looks for ways in which nurses' skills and talents can be maximized to more broadly impact the lives of those individuals and the communities in which we serve. We will continue to harness and improve the effectiveness of all resources to enhance the quality, safety, patient-centeredness, and efficiency of care delivered to our consumers.

Once again, I would like to congratulate and say "thank you" to the hard working nurses throughout our country.

To join the conversation on the evolving role of nurses in our health care system, follow Dawn Bazarko, UnitedHealth Group's senior vice president of the Center for Nursing Advancement, on Twitter.