Why is St. Catherine of Siena the patron saint nurses?

Catherine was born in Siena, Italy, on March 25, 1347 and was one of the 25 children born to Lapa Piagenti and Giacomo Benincasa. She was a Dominican tertiary who, at the age of 16, gained prominence by convincing Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome from Avignon. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970.

Nurses consider her their patron saint because of a remarkable event related in her biography: she attended a nurse assisting a pregnant woman in childbirth, took the newborn child in her arms and blessed it. The child immediately died and Catherine prayed to God to let the child live, after which the child returned to life.