Nursing Past to Present
In history there have been those that care for ones who are sick. This was typically done by family and friends who had knowledge of healing practices. Many times this knowledge was verbally handed down from generation to generation. As early as 3000 B.C. there are records from the first medical care system in Egypt. They Egyptians were some of the first societies to record drugs and develop a way to keep their society healthy. Care of the sick by family and friends in the United States lasted into the 19th century. Up to that then only time a doctor was called to come in and provide medical care was during an epidemic or plague. With urbanization of areas throughout the country there was a need to have a central place to care for the sick. The building of hospitals and medical centers led to the need for more caregivers. There were a wide variety of hospitals ranging from public institutions with poor care to religious institutions known for a better quality of care.
Florence Nightingale, often called the “mother of nursing” made changes and started programs that forever changed the practice of nursing. She came from a wealthy English family and was brought up during a time when women from her class did not go out and care for the sick. She went against the grain and went through a 3 month long nursing program and learned how to care and treatments for the ill. In 1854 she led a group of nurses to care for soldiers during the Crimean War, after she heard of the “squalid conditions of the soldiers who had been injured” (Klainberg, p26). Her simple practice of using clean sheets, bandages, and washing the soldiers with soap and water practically obliterated the death rate of those dying from infection. When she returned home and was honored as a national heroine. Nightingale started a training program for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, in 1860. Her actions helped to make nursing a profession that was respectable for women. Up to this point it the nursing field was predominately male, due to the perceived sensitivity of seeing naked limbs as well as blood and gore. This is a bit amusing, as today the field is mostly women, and men are now the minority.
Clara Barton was an American who despite not having formal training volunteered during the civil war as a nurse. Many times she used her own money to acquire the needed supplies to care for the troops. She is best known for her role in establishing the American Red Cross in 1881, after convincing congress to affiliate with the International Red Cross. This affiliation gave the Red Cross the ability to function in times of peace, when normally it would have only been allowed during war times.
The first African American registered nurse educated in the United States was Mary Mahoney. She graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1879. At the time most nursing schools would limit the admission of or not permit the admission of black women.
Formal nursing education was started in 1798 by Dr. Valentine Seaman who organized a course for the training of nurses to care for maternity patients. In 1839 Dr. Joseph Warrington, who was an advocate for nurses training wrote a book, The Nurse's Guide Containing a Series of Instruction to Females who wish to Engage in the Important Business of Nursing Mother and Child in the Lying-In Chamber. This text would be one of the first nursing “handbooks” and each Nurse Society nurse received one. There were about 50 of these nurses between 1839 and 1850 that cared for patients in their homes. The civil war was a turning point in nursing education, the need for capable nurses to care for the wounded and sick provided reasoning that more education and training programs were needed in nursing. There were over 20,000 women and men who served as nurses during the civil war. One program that was started during this time was in the Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia who began a six month training program for nurses; they graduated their first class in 1869. Other such hospitals began offering similar courses for the training of nurses.
Nursing education has gone through many changes over the years, from the simple 6 month hospital programs of the past to nurses being able to obtain graduate degrees. In 1873 there were three nurse education programs started; New York Training School at Bellevue Hospital, the Connecticut Training School at the State Hospital (later renamed New Haven Hospital) and the Boston Training School at Massachusetts General Hospital; these programs followed the ideas of Florence Nightingale. They are recognized to be the establishment of professional nurse education in the United States. There were soon more programs started and by 1900 there were between 400-800 schools of nursing in the country. All were typically affiliated with a hospital and they provided clinical training to the students. These nursing students would attend training for two to three years before graduating then would be given a diploma and were able to seek work as a trained nurse.
These early programs while a starting point for nurse education were set up more like apprenticeship programs and have been accused of using the nursing students for their labor. “Despite their significant shortcomings, however, they proved very popular with both hospitals and students and created a pattern of hospital-based nurse education that persisted until the mid-twentieth century. And, while many disparaged the exploitive nature of the nurse education system, the presence of trained nurses with their emphasis on cleanliness, orderliness and close observation of patients successfully transformed hospitals into scientific institutions of caring” (Whelan). The profusion of students and graduates testified to the appeal of nursing as an occupation. With time the programs were changed to provide more academic instruction and decreased the amount of direct patient care by the students.
The diplomas that nursing students were receiving have now been replaced by associate degree or baccalaureate degree programs – with most programs today leaning towards the bachelor’s degrees programs. Most college nursing programs today focus on a baccalaureate degree with many community colleges still offering an associate degree. While hospital based programs have practically disappeared, they are not completely gone. In central Ohio, we have The Mount Carmel College of Nursing which offers both a bachelors and masters program, providing hands on experience in the Mount Carmel Health System. Ohio University recently partnered with Berger Health Systems to offer classes at their hospital campus for a nursing program that results in an associate degree. Whatever program potential nurses choose upon graduation they must pass the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX) before they are able to practice.
There are many options for those who are wanting to go into a nursing career, and a variety of education that one can obtain. Many nurses today opt to continue their education – usually after working as a nurse for a period of time – as a nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner programs started in 1965 in the United States. These programs were originally started because of a shortage of primary care providers in rural and urban areas. The first of these roles was the pediatric nurse practitioner; they were needed with the growth of the public health nurse and were focused on community health. Pediatricians were the mentors of these first pediatric nurse practitioners or PNP’s. These early nurse practitioners were not accepted by organized nursing which was at the time trying to distinct itself with a separate identity in the medical field. There have been many changes and growth within the nurse practitioner field since its conception. Today’s they have the ability to see patients and prescribe medications (with the exception of Georgia) under a physician, in 10 states they can do so independently. Many nurse practitioners work in offices with other doctors and in hospitals and have become a common sight. Of the many other options available nurses can work in a variety of areas including the insurance realm, forensic science, computer technology, schools, and homecare.
With all that has changed in the healthcare system many lives that would not have been saved in the past are saved today. Some are by the simple practices of clean bandages and washing hands, others are by the advances in technology that we have had through time. Even today the medical field in constantly changing as we learn and grow the way that patients are cared for by their medical team changes. One of the best things about the nursing field is its ability to adapt and change in a field that is always shifting, there is little hesitation that nursing will continue to be the significant occupation that it is.
Florence Nightingale, often called the “mother of nursing” made changes and started programs that forever changed the practice of nursing. She came from a wealthy English family and was brought up during a time when women from her class did not go out and care for the sick. She went against the grain and went through a 3 month long nursing program and learned how to care and treatments for the ill. In 1854 she led a group of nurses to care for soldiers during the Crimean War, after she heard of the “squalid conditions of the soldiers who had been injured” (Klainberg, p26). Her simple practice of using clean sheets, bandages, and washing the soldiers with soap and water practically obliterated the death rate of those dying from infection. When she returned home and was honored as a national heroine. Nightingale started a training program for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, in 1860. Her actions helped to make nursing a profession that was respectable for women. Up to this point it the nursing field was predominately male, due to the perceived sensitivity of seeing naked limbs as well as blood and gore. This is a bit amusing, as today the field is mostly women, and men are now the minority.
Clara Barton was an American who despite not having formal training volunteered during the civil war as a nurse. Many times she used her own money to acquire the needed supplies to care for the troops. She is best known for her role in establishing the American Red Cross in 1881, after convincing congress to affiliate with the International Red Cross. This affiliation gave the Red Cross the ability to function in times of peace, when normally it would have only been allowed during war times.
The first African American registered nurse educated in the United States was Mary Mahoney. She graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1879. At the time most nursing schools would limit the admission of or not permit the admission of black women.
Formal nursing education was started in 1798 by Dr. Valentine Seaman who organized a course for the training of nurses to care for maternity patients. In 1839 Dr. Joseph Warrington, who was an advocate for nurses training wrote a book, The Nurse's Guide Containing a Series of Instruction to Females who wish to Engage in the Important Business of Nursing Mother and Child in the Lying-In Chamber. This text would be one of the first nursing “handbooks” and each Nurse Society nurse received one. There were about 50 of these nurses between 1839 and 1850 that cared for patients in their homes. The civil war was a turning point in nursing education, the need for capable nurses to care for the wounded and sick provided reasoning that more education and training programs were needed in nursing. There were over 20,000 women and men who served as nurses during the civil war. One program that was started during this time was in the Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia who began a six month training program for nurses; they graduated their first class in 1869. Other such hospitals began offering similar courses for the training of nurses.
Nursing education has gone through many changes over the years, from the simple 6 month hospital programs of the past to nurses being able to obtain graduate degrees. In 1873 there were three nurse education programs started; New York Training School at Bellevue Hospital, the Connecticut Training School at the State Hospital (later renamed New Haven Hospital) and the Boston Training School at Massachusetts General Hospital; these programs followed the ideas of Florence Nightingale. They are recognized to be the establishment of professional nurse education in the United States. There were soon more programs started and by 1900 there were between 400-800 schools of nursing in the country. All were typically affiliated with a hospital and they provided clinical training to the students. These nursing students would attend training for two to three years before graduating then would be given a diploma and were able to seek work as a trained nurse.
These early programs while a starting point for nurse education were set up more like apprenticeship programs and have been accused of using the nursing students for their labor. “Despite their significant shortcomings, however, they proved very popular with both hospitals and students and created a pattern of hospital-based nurse education that persisted until the mid-twentieth century. And, while many disparaged the exploitive nature of the nurse education system, the presence of trained nurses with their emphasis on cleanliness, orderliness and close observation of patients successfully transformed hospitals into scientific institutions of caring” (Whelan). The profusion of students and graduates testified to the appeal of nursing as an occupation. With time the programs were changed to provide more academic instruction and decreased the amount of direct patient care by the students.
The diplomas that nursing students were receiving have now been replaced by associate degree or baccalaureate degree programs – with most programs today leaning towards the bachelor’s degrees programs. Most college nursing programs today focus on a baccalaureate degree with many community colleges still offering an associate degree. While hospital based programs have practically disappeared, they are not completely gone. In central Ohio, we have The Mount Carmel College of Nursing which offers both a bachelors and masters program, providing hands on experience in the Mount Carmel Health System. Ohio University recently partnered with Berger Health Systems to offer classes at their hospital campus for a nursing program that results in an associate degree. Whatever program potential nurses choose upon graduation they must pass the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX) before they are able to practice.
There are many options for those who are wanting to go into a nursing career, and a variety of education that one can obtain. Many nurses today opt to continue their education – usually after working as a nurse for a period of time – as a nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner programs started in 1965 in the United States. These programs were originally started because of a shortage of primary care providers in rural and urban areas. The first of these roles was the pediatric nurse practitioner; they were needed with the growth of the public health nurse and were focused on community health. Pediatricians were the mentors of these first pediatric nurse practitioners or PNP’s. These early nurse practitioners were not accepted by organized nursing which was at the time trying to distinct itself with a separate identity in the medical field. There have been many changes and growth within the nurse practitioner field since its conception. Today’s they have the ability to see patients and prescribe medications (with the exception of Georgia) under a physician, in 10 states they can do so independently. Many nurse practitioners work in offices with other doctors and in hospitals and have become a common sight. Of the many other options available nurses can work in a variety of areas including the insurance realm, forensic science, computer technology, schools, and homecare.
With all that has changed in the healthcare system many lives that would not have been saved in the past are saved today. Some are by the simple practices of clean bandages and washing hands, others are by the advances in technology that we have had through time. Even today the medical field in constantly changing as we learn and grow the way that patients are cared for by their medical team changes. One of the best things about the nursing field is its ability to adapt and change in a field that is always shifting, there is little hesitation that nursing will continue to be the significant occupation that it is.