The World Health Organisation also named 2020 as the year of the nurse and midwife before the wide-reaching effects of coronavirus spread around the world.

Orange Hospital director of nursing Jo Dean said this year also marked the 200^th anniversary of the birth of "The Lady with the Lamp" Florence Nightingale, who is credited as being the founder of modern nursing.

"She was a leader in health care, her main focus was hand washing and that's still just as important today, particularly in this pandemic," Ms Dean said.

"You wouldn't have thought that 200 years since Florence Nightingale we would be dealing with a pandemic now.

"It is telling actually that nurses are fighting the pandemic, they are very brave, it's something we have never seen before and hopefully will never see again.

"Nurses are on the front line and they were very brave, I've seen some great work."

She said each day they came to work they didn't know how coronavirus would affect the hospital.

"We could have ended up like New York or Italy but they came to work, they were so brave, I've never been so proud of the workforce," she added.

Ms Dean said there are about 470 nurses at the hospital including casual staff and there are no vacancies.

"The nurses spend the most time with the patients but it's a multi-disciplined approach, we cannot do anything without each other, it's a team, it's a close-knit team in Orange," she said.

Ms Dean said the hospital had a strong interest in "growing our own" nursing staff and recruits and trains nursing students straight out of university to become registered nurses or TAFE for enrolled nurses.

Dudley Private Hospital CEO and director of clinical services Paul McKenna also has a nursing background and said coronavirus was putting everyone to the test this year.

Mr McKenna said there were 97 nurses at the hospital but social distancing will affect how their contribution will be celebrated this year, but their efforts will be recognised.

He said nurses were subject to the same distancing and preparation as others in the community but they continued to come to work every day while not knowing what the situation would be.

"[International Nurses Day] is always important every year but it's just a reminder during a crisis or a pandemic that we remember those that put other people first," he said.

"Executives and management of the hospital want to thank our nurses who work so hard coming in at a time of uncertainty and every day they come in with a smile and that's the heart of Dudley.

"They are certainly valued by me and valued by their colleagues."