Essay about The Evolution of Nursing Practice

The nursing profession became a recognized vocational during the crusades (1100 to 1200). Criminals, widows, and orphans were recruited to take care of the sick in exchange for housing and food. Health care conditions became extremely bad. In the mid 1800s Florence Nightingale a woman who studied in Germany with a Protestant order of woman who cared for the sick lowered the death rate from 60% to 1%. She train a group of woman to care for the sick and wounded. She believed that cleaning up the environment and providing ventilation and sanitation and proper nutrition will decrease the death rate which she succeeded. Florence Nightingale kept records and statistics that reinforced her believes of care. Many

“Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.” – Florence Nightingale. Healthcare is a very demanding field, as long as people have a need for health care services there will always be a demand for healthcare providers. Due to the demand, healthcare has become a popular choice for many individuals as a career choice. Nursing is The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of nursing and its current status in the

In modern society, religion and medical science both play vital roles in healing across the world. To become a nurse you must be licensed in order to practice. This ensures quality care to patients. Women are able to practice nursing and obtain education to advance their careers. The Renaissance started the advancement in science. Now, new advancements are made every year in the healthcare field.

In the 1900s, Nurses were trained by working short shift for little pay everyday of the week while also studying to get their diploma. There was more hands on training than classroom time. They had to make sure they kept everything spotless and clean. They were expected to follow strict rules and take orders from physicians and supervisors with no question. They spent time in the operating room learning how to dress wounds and keeping the operating room spotless. They did a

The idea of nursing actually pre-dates the 19th century, but the first professional nurse is Florence Nightingale. Traditionally, only sick people with families could get the level of care needed, but Nightingale realized the mistake in that assumption. If one didn’t have a family they couldn’t get the correct level of care. During the Crimean War, Nightingale helped clean the soldier’s wounds, provide wholesome food, and generally keep the wounded tent clean. This drastically reduced the amount of casualties and thus the idea of professional nurses was born. A few years down the road, physicians gave nurses a more in-depth education

When I was younger I wanted to be just like mom. I would always put on her scrubs and pretend I was a nurse, caring for my stuffed animals. It wasn’t until I was much older that I began to realize just how much nurses do. Registered Nurses (RNs), irrespective of specialty or work placement, perform rudimentary responsibilities which include treating patients, informing the public and patients about different medical conditions, and providing guidance and emotional provision to patients ' friends’ and family members. RNs keep track of patients ' symptoms and previous medical records, help implement diagnostic tests, operate medical equipment, oversee medications and treatment, and assist with patient follow-ups and convalesce. RNs also explain to patients and their families how to properly handle their illness or injury, as well as post-treatment home care essentials, and guidelines for diet and exercise. There are some RNs who are also taught to provide therapy to family members of disparagingly ill patients. RNs work to provide general health information by teaching the public to be cautious of various warning signs and indications of disease. Nursing has played a profound and essential role throughout history as a profession that exemplifies the conservation and refurbishment of health. Today the demand for nurses is at its highest. With that, education and experience is essential to establishing yourself in this field. With a projected growth rate of nineteen

However, many doctors still did not recieve a degree, and instead opted to immediately begin their said careers with a much more hands on methodology, in which they would immediately begin treating patients, with basically no prior medical knowledge, apart from what was learned through the hospital or medical facilities used at the time. During this time nurses also began to become far more mainstrem in the latter half of the 19th cenury. Nurses were looked upon in through the lense of a tradtional “caregiver” model, where during this time period was naturally ascribed to women. As training schools for nurses increased, their presence in hopsitals became as common place in western medicine as doctors themselves. The U.S. medical industry was undergoing a massive reform, with treatment for ailmens in a hospital setting becoming highly common, as the late 19th century turned into the 20th century. After during World War I the U.S. saw an large increase in health insurance as a policy, this developed especially during the 1920’s.

Nursing has been part of human society for a large and mostly undefined amount of years, with first records being in primitive societies. In such societies, the role of caregiver or nurse was often given to one at birth or shortly after birth. Not unlike today, most nurses were female, with these societies thinking that it has been the role of the females since they nurse and provide nurturance their infant. While a majority of them were female, males were also involved being medicine men and shamans. The treatments they supplied were often ineffective and irrelevant to the disease that the patient had.

During the time of Elizabeth Frye, Pastor Fleidner and Florence Nightingale is when a system of nursing was established. Medical professions found it difficult to train women on the basic skills of nursing, however it was only due to hard work that many obstacles were overcome as they recognized order and cleanliness in the hospitals and they discovered that due to the cleanliness, deaths declined and the amount of people recovering increased and nurses were regarded more like assistants to doctors rather than servants.

Nurses have gone through a significant evolution over time. Nurses work in many setting such as hospitals and homes. Some nurses are even stationed in foreign countries around the globe. In the past, they took care of revolutionary soldiers. “Where the brave soldiers went, the nurses followed,” (A history of care). In world war one and two they were put at risk for disease, and capture (A history of care). Over time nurses have had had to enter many disastrous scenes to aid in care. For example, Clara Maass died in 1901 for volunteering for experiments to control yellow fever (A history of care). Over time nurses have made many contributions to this world to make it a better place.

Nursing began gaining attention as a profession during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, when hospitals were built for the many pilgrims needing health care. In the sixteenth century, a shortage of nurses ensued when Westerners became more concerned with warfare and exploration instead of religious beliefs. Women prisoners were released to help care for the sick; they worked for low wages for long periods under stressful conditions. During the mid-nineteenth century, Nightingale introduced nursing that’s still being used today; she gave birth to the nursing profession.

In the world history of nursing, roots can be traced to religion, mythology, and Eastern and Western societies. The ancient Egyptians utilized perhaps the first formal nurses, hiring them to assist in childbirth. It is from these beginnings that today's midwives evolved.

The historical development of nursing today is based upon the lives of many, their contributions, sacrifices and experiences. These things brought about renovations in patient care. Different ways of thinking led to research, theories and evidenced based practice. The importance of studying nursing history has led to overall progression of nursing as a profession. In order to fully study the historical development of nursing we need to study all aspects of nursing science throughout time, explain the relationships between nursing science and our profession, as well as influences of other disciplines on the

As former President Barack Obama said, “America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2010). Nursing as not always been the way it is now. To understand the history behind nursing, one must educate themselves on who Florence Nightingale was. Florence Nightingale had a major impact on the development of modern nursing. Before the introduction of modern nursing by Florence Nightingale, treatments were not giving the way that they are now. Treatments were done in the patient’s home rather than at a hospital or clinic. Patients were giving prescribe medicine and then was told to rest and given specific diets that they were to follow to see improvements in their health. Rather than treating the sickness itself, the medications that were prescribed focused on relieving the patients of their symptoms. As mentioned earlier, treatments were done in the patient’s home which made nursing a domestic. This all changed with Florence Nightingale, as she helped with guiding the status of nursing into a profession.

Nursing starts as far back as the late 1700s when a, New York Physician, Valentine Seaman, organized a course of lectures for nurses who cared for maternity patients. An early nineteenth century program, the Nurse Society of Philadelphia (also referred to as the Nurse Charity of Philadelphia) trained women in caring for mothers during childbirth and postpartum period. (Jean C. Whelan) The founder, Dr. Joseph Warrington, a strong advocate for women interesting in pursing nursing as an occupation, authored a book. (paraphrase) (Jean C. Whelan) If you look at Health care in the 1800s is not what is today. There were no generally accepted body of knowledge so that rival theories circulated competitively. The year 1873 was a defining moment year in American history. In that year, three nursing educational programs began operations. As the centuries past, our understanding of the field of Nursing began to evolve into a legitimate school of thought.