Nursing

Remembering Florence Nightengale

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Nursing has been around through the centuries. It has come from a service first preformed by Catholic monks, and then later by those who were being punished to what we now have as the conventional occupation of nursing. Florence Nightengale lead the advances of modern nursing into what it today.

Nightengale, who became well known for all her time spent taking care of wounded soldiers who fought in the Crimean War, felt that God wanted her to become a nurse. With 38 other woman, Nightengale went to the British camp in the Ottoman Empire. It was rumored that there were fewer deaths once after her arrival; however, to the contrary, the death rate increased to its highest rate. It was not until after her stay that she recognised the main cause of death: poor sanitary conditions.

After her service during the war, Nightengale focused her attention on the importance of sanitation in hospital facilities. Because of her focus, the standards of cleanliness within hospitals improved, which helped the health of the general public. Along with health improvements, the standards of cleaning within military facilities were dramatically changed as well, which helped improve the chances of survival for wounded soldiers.

Nightengale’s assistance during the war also helped begin a fund that was targeted at training more nurses. She was able to establish the Nightengale Training School, where young women came to study formally with hopes of become nurses. This was the first nursing school ever established. At the same time, she published a book called Notes on Nursing, that was a part of the core classes at the school.The school later became the Florence Nightengale School of Nursing and Midwifery. Because of everything she did for the nursing industry she has been named the founder of modern nursing, and will be remembered throughout history.

Filed Under: Health care, Nursing Tagged With: Florence, Health, Midwifery, Notes on Nursing, Nursing

The Nightengale Pledge

Nursing is a popular profession among both men and women today. Since it’s formal beginning in 1959, the profession of nursing has been an honorable profession that many seek out. The founder of nursing as a profession, Florence Nightengale, was known for being a woman of God. She, along with a few other women, changed nursing forever.

Nightengale some time serving as a military nurse, after which she founded a school and published a guide to nursing. Because of her achievements and contributions to nursing, she had a pledge named in her honor called the Nightengale Pledge, which was written by a committee led by Lystra Gretter, a nursing professor at the Harper Hospital. The pledge was first taken by the 1983 nursing school graduating class.

The pledge outlined a code of ethics that nurses would begin to use as a standard practice. The pledge swore that a practicing nurse would not give a patient a drug that could hurt them. It also stated that the nurse was to do whatever was in his/her powers to take care of patients without allowing personal matters to interfere. Many devoted nurses around the world have taken this pledge at graduation.

The Nightengale pledge was adapted from the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath simply states that a physician will do no harm and perform his or her job to the best of their known abilities without compromising the health and well-being of their patients. Even some veterinarian schools practice a similar oath called the Veterinarian’s Oath. Of course, their oath promises the care of animals to the best of their scientific abilities rather than to the care of human life. From pet to owner, it certainly does seem that everyone feels a need to promise to do their best when caring about health.

Filed Under: Health care, Nursing Tagged With: Florence Nightengale, Health, hippocraticoath, Lystra Gretter, Nurse, Nursing

Nursing and Agnes Jones

Many people around the world have taken a hand and given their lives to being in the medical field. Many more today are making the path into a number of these challenging jobs. Nursing is a field that has assisted the medical community since the beginning of time. The founder of nursing education was Florence Nightengale, who helped change the standards of sanitation for the medical community. Another impressive nurse, who studied underneath Nigthengale, was a woman by the name of Agnes Jones.

Jones was the first nurse at the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary who was trained as a nursing superintendent. She was formally trained at the school set up by Nightengale in 1862. She was a very dedicated, hardworking, and intelligent student. Jones was such a dedicated student that she won special praise from Nightengale.

After Jones graduated, she was invited to the Brownlow Hill Workhouse to help lead an experiment by William Rathbone. She accepted, and in 1865 she went to help in the endeavor. The task was taking care of the poor people whose working situation was purposely made harmful to deter them from coming to work. The working situations were worse inside the workhouse than they were outside. Jones made an amazing effort to make sure the experiment succeeded, working herself to the bone to take care of the workers.

Jones worked extremely closely to the poor in Liverpool: close enough that, unfortunately, she contracted typhus fever and died at age 35. Typhus was a very extreme epidemic that impacted the poor during the time period. Nightengale later mourned the loss of her prized student. In Jones honor and in gratitude to what she contributed to nursing, a window in the Anglican Catherdral was devoted to her and a statue was built in the Oratory, remembering Jones as an amazing nurse who had an incredible impact on nursing history.

Filed Under: Health care, Nursing Tagged With: Agnes Jones, Education, Florence Nightengale, Health, History, Nurse, Nursing

Why people opt for Home care as compared with Nursing Homes?

Home care and nursing homes have become an integral part of our lives. The home care services and nursing home centers in the society are helping the people needing support to cope well and to manage their demanding health and care needs. During our lives, we might need to get home care services or the nursing homes services either for ourselves or for our parents and grand parents. But sometimes, we might get stuck in deciding between the two i.e. whether we should be opting for home care services or should be going to nursing home centers to get the care and support that we need.

Different studies and surveys show that there is an increased trend of using home care services as compared with the nursing homes. There are many reasons that people may opt for home care services rather than leaving their elders or staying themselves in the nursing homes. Sometimes, people might not find it easy to leave their homes and to get accustomed with new place and surroundings easily. That’s why; most people prefer to be looked after at their own homes while being surrounded with their own friends and family members. It has been found that, people being treated at homes and being provided home care support show recovery speedily. Also, home care services are likely to be less costly as compared with the nursing home services.

Choosing between getting home care services and going to a nursing care centre to get the medical support totally depend upon individuals own preferences and needs. Sometimes, if the person needing support and care find it hard to cope well at home then they might think about going to a nursing home but most of the time people feel it good to be at home and being cared of through using home care services.

Filed Under: Nursing Tagged With: Health, Home care, Home Health, Long-term care, Medicaid, Nursing, Nursing home, United States

Linda Richards

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There are many people who have had a hand in the history of nursing. Linda Richards was the first woman to be educated as a nurse in America.

Richards decision to enter the nursing field was influenced by the death of her mother, and later the care that she would bestow on her husband who was wounded in the American Civil War a year later. Driven by compassion and loss, she took a job at the Boston City Hospital. However, after three months of working terrible hours without any training, Richards quit the job to search for other outlets into nursing.

She was the first student to attend the American Nurse’s training school at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1872. A year later she graduated and moved to New York and accepted a job at Bellevue Hospital as a supervisor. During the time that she worked there, she invented a way to keep track of the patients medical records, which has been used ever since by both the United States and the United Kingdom.

She later went to England, where she studied nursing for a second time. While in London, she also met with and trained under Nightengale. After her training she returned to the United States and established nursing schools all over the nation. After she finished the schools in the United States, she went and established the first nursing school in Japan, where she remained for five years.

Once she was back in the United States, Richards worked for twenty years before she retired at age seventy. In her time she also managed to write a book about her experiences, which was published and then republished. Richards passed away from a stroke in April of 1930, but she will be remembered as the amazing woman that she was for centuries to come.

Filed Under: Health care, Nursing Tagged With: Health, Linda Richards, Nursing, United States

United States Navy Nurses

In 1908, the Nurse Corps was created by Congress as an addition to the U.S. Navy. At that point, 20 women were chosen to be the first to officially serve as female sailors, even though for almost 100 years prior to that both men and women had been nursing on naval ships and in hospitals.

Just before WWI, the Navy Nurse Corps had grown to 160 women. These women did more than just care for the sick and wounded. On top of their medical tasks, they were expected to train nurses, both land-based in the U.S. and overseas, as well as enlisted men serving as medics. Once the United States entered WWI, the Nurse Corp received a large expansion for both its enlisted and reserve officers.

By the end of the war, 19 nurses lost their lives. More than half died from the flu, which was deadly at that time. One thousand five-hundred and fifty nurses had served overseas and at Naval hospitals at home. Once soldiers were being processed home, the nurses were given assignments on board ships and on ground teams to aid the wounded. After WWI the number of Navy nurses died down to fewer than five hundred until the start of the second world war.

WWII brought nurses to serving regular service on hospital ships, and an educational increase was also impacted because of the status increases. They acted and spoken toward the same way officers would be, and wore similar attire to ranking Ensign to Lieutenant officers. In 1920, the Army first recognised nurses as regular commissioned officers, during which period the corps grew to almost eight hundred who served actively and nine hundred who were a part of the reserve corps. Any soldier will testify to how vital nurses are, especially during war time conflict.

Filed Under: Health care, Nursing Tagged With: Health, History, Nurse, Nursing

Nursing in The Australian Military

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The United States is not the only country that has noticed a benefit from having nurses in the armed forces. Australia for instance formed the Royal Australian Nursing Corps, or RAANC, in Febuary of 1951. This addition to the Australian military came fifty years after what was the beginning of the formation of the United States Naval Corps.

The Corps slogan was Pro Humanitate, which meant for humanity. The corp preaches empathy and sympathy along with working with others, providing dedicated health care to the sick and injured. In 1958 they received approval for the Nursing Corps flag, which depicted their slogan.

History of the corps can be followed to the establishment of the Army Nursing Service, which was founded in August of 1898. During that time there were 25 nurses, one of whom acted as Lady Superintendent. These women participated in the Boer War with the deployment of troops from the New South Wales and Victorian governments to Africa. These women were not the only ones to see action; in fact, nurses from western and southern Australia and Queensland saw the damages of the war.

Because of the impact that the nurses had during the war in 1902, the Australian Army Nursing Service was established in conjunction with the Australian federal government. The day that the service was established, July 1st of 1903, is now recognised as RAANC corps day.

In WWI, over two thousand women served in the nursing service, four hundred and twenty three of which were stationed in Australia, with one hundred and thirty Australians working under the Queen’s military nursing branch. Twenty five women died and three hundred and eighty eight were recognised. In WW2 the number of nurses increased to more than three thousand, and out of that number only seventy one women died, while thirty eight more became POWs, putting Australian nurses on the map of history.

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International Nursing Day

All around the world, nurses are celebrated for the progress they have helped make possible in the health care industry. International Nurses Week is marked May 6th through May 12th, and this week has been celebrated since 1965.

In 1974, it was decided that the day should be recognised on May 12th, which was Florence Nightengale’s birthday. Florence Nightengale was important to nursing history because of her contributions to the health care industry, and the establishment of her school for nursing. Nightengale has been known as the creator of modern nursing.

Since 1999 the holiday has been celebrated on May 8th, because the British voted that Nightengale was not the representative of modern nursing at all, and since then the holiday has landed on the 8th, or in the very least it has landed on the 8th for the British. In 2003, it was finally designated that the holiday was to be celebrated on the Wednesday within the week between May 6th and May 12th.

Presently, each year the day is marked by the distribution of the Nurse Day Kit, which contains informational packets that are intended to educate people about their health. This is done in order to promote overall wellness in communities. These materials are used by modern health care professionals like doctors and nurses everywhere.

In the UK, on May 12, a mass is held in Nightengale’s honor. A lamp is taken and lit from the Nurse’s Chapel, while the service takes place to symbolize the passing of knowledge. This lamp is handed to each nurse at the mass. The mass is located at Westminister Abbey in London. Everyone can agree that those who take health care into their priorities make a major difference in our lives. From the common cold to life and death emergencies, these brave souls assist as best they can, and they make a big difference.

Filed Under: Health care, Nursing Tagged With: Health, Health care, Nurse, Nursing, Specialties

Nursing An Exciting, Fulfilling Career

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A career choice is certainly one of the most important decisions a person will ever make in their lifetime. Not only will they spend most of their waking hours doing the job they’ve chosen to do, but it will also affect the income they have and the lifestyle that results from that income. With this in mind, a career in nursing is certainly something that men and women starting out should seriously consider.

Nursing is now and will continue to be one of the most in-demand of any job on the market, and the starting pay is getting better all the time. Even more importantly, it is a profession in which someone can truly make a remarkable difference in the lives of others. Below are just a few of the many reasons to put nursing on your “careers -to-consider” list:

o Obviously, becoming a nurse is a choice to spend your career in the care of others. The fulfillment and job satisfaction that many people derive from this aspect alone is compensation for the well-known challenges associated with nursing. Seeing someone’s face when something you’ve done has improved or even preserved their life is a reward that no salary can equal.

o Nursing is a very high-skill profession. The kind of person that chooses to become a nurse is generally the kind of person that is goal-oriented and driven to excel. Our society could certainly use more of this kind of person.

o Nurses are known and admired for their dedication to and their passion for their profession. Becoming a nurse is a choice to work long and hard, day after day and week after week. It is not a job for the squeamish or the lazy. It’s not a profession that lends itself to an active social or family life, at least not without a careful balance.

Nursing is all about making a difference. In your own life, and in the lives of others.

Filed Under: Nursing Tagged With: Career, Health, Hospital, Nurse, Nursing, Organizations, Patient, United States

Military Nurses Making A Major Difference

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Serving as a military nurse is an opportunity to receive rewards in a multitude of ways. In addition to all of the benefits of a traditional nursing career, the military nurse is also given the privilege of serving their country. Many who choose to become a military nurse cite this as one of the chief reasons they decided to pursue nursing as a career. With ongoing wars and other military engagements taking place throughout the world, the urgency of need for people willing to step up and serve has never been greater. The rewards are great. The challenges are many. But to an overwhelming degree, a military nursing career is truly the best of both worlds.

It has been over 80 years since the Veteran’s Health Administration (better known as the VA) was established. From its earliest beginnings, the VA has been focused on providing the best care for the brave men and women serving our country. It is now one of the largest health care delivery systems in the United States, with over 150 hospitals nationwide and serving more than 5 million veterans annually. It is also the largest employer of nurses in the entire world, with a total of over 60,000 currently employed. It is also one of the largest employers in the country of minority nurses.

The opportunities for a military nurse are also remarkably diverse and ever expanding. Whether one wants the intense but rewarding experience of a military hospital, the excitement of being a health educator, or the chance to specialize in innumerable niches, a military nursing career can fill the bill. There are also many opportunities for developing nursing skills that will easily carry over into a non-military nursing career. This in fact is yet another attraction of choosing the military.

Each of these factors, coupled with many, many more, make the decision to be a military nurse one for careful consideration. There is truly limitless, exciting opportunities ahead.

Filed Under: Nursing Tagged With: Career, Employment, Health, Health care, Hospital, Nurse, Nursing, United States