It seems like a simple thing: Take the pictures, frame the pictures and then hang the pictures along the yellow walls of the Adelaide Nutting Corridor. But for those charged with coordinating this biennial tribute to nurses, designing that hallway takes months of careful planning.

So, on a cold February day, directors from each nursing department gathered around a conference table to discuss the details of replacing the last display—which focused on nurses’ interests outside the hospital—with this year’s theme: “Discovery through Collaboration and Innovation.”

Now they must decide which nurses will represent that theme in photographs—one for each of the department’s 13 divisions—to be presented during Nurses’ Week in May and displayed for the next two years. “This is about celebrating and recognizing nurses,” says Karen Haller, vice president of nursing, during the meeting. “It’s about these people as representatives of what nursing is.”

First unveiled on June 5, 2003, the hallway commemorates the work of Adelaide Nutting, the Hospital’s first nursing superintendent, whose picture hangs at the end of the corridor, with a plaque celebrating her dedication to nursing. With its close proximity to the Hospital’s main entrance, food establishments, waiting areas and ATMs, the Nutting Corridor generates hundreds of passersby daily. Such a public tribute to nurses—and on such prized Hospital real estate—is impressive, says Lisa Phifer, director of nursing for pediatrics.

“It’s wonderful that the hospital has devoted such a popular corridor in the main part of the Hospital to Adelaide Nutting,” Phifer says. “We’re so proud that there will always be a tribute to nurses in such a public place.”

With so many onlookers, there’s a lot to consider. The photos should show the department’s diversity—men and minorities included. They should show an array of nursing roles, from nurse practitioners to RNs. And, keeping with this year’s theme, the chosen subjects should demonstrate leadership and collaboration with other departments, such as Ophthalmology’s new instrument cleaning process, coordinated between nurses and infection control specialists.

Aesthetics also generate a lot of discussion around the table. They want it to look like an art gallery and eventually decide on black and white photographs, mounted on white mats and black frames. And, please, Haller interjects, no giant group shots of nameless faces standing in front of a building. Instead, the pictures should show nurses in their own environments, whether in an operating room or at a patient’s bedside. “After all, this isn’t a historical record or an archive,” she says. “It’s an artistic display.”

When they unveil the redesigned hallway, it will be to a crowd that includes nurses and physicians alike, says Judy Rohde, director of nursing for psychiatry and neuroscience. “This hallway speaks volumes about the work nurses do,” she says. “We all get so excited when this time comes around.”