Chapter One Highlights
CHAPTER 1
In this work, the authors argue that studying nursing history provides nursing students with a “sense of professional identity, a useful methodological research skill, and a context for evaluating information” (Keeling & Ramos, 1995). Therefore the purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the history of American nursing from the middle of the 19th century through present-day nursing practice.
Nursing has indeed evolved over the course of more than 150 years since the inception of the first Nightingale schools in the United States, but it has not done so without significant challenges along the way. In fact, many of these challenges persist today: issues surrounding gender, race, socioeconomic status, educational requirements for entry into practice, professional licensure, pandemic disease, war, and nursing shortages.
To assist mid–19th-century women with their caretaker role, Florence Nightingale published Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not. In the preface of this book, first published in 1859, Nightingale explained that her notes on nursing were “meant simply to give hints for thought to women who have personal charge of the health of others. Every woman … or at least almost every woman has, at one time or another of her life, charge of the personal health of somebody, whether child or invalid—in other words, every woman is a nurse” (Nightingale, 1859, p. 8). Although more than 150 years have passed since Nightingale wrote her book, and today's nurses are professionals, many of her notes on nursing continue to be relevant to contemporary nursing practice.
THE BEGINNING OF NURSING TRAINING PROGRAMS
Florence Nightingale is well known for her work during the Crimean War (1853 to 1856). Her wartime experience shaped her ideas about the value of the trained nurse and was later the impetus for the creation of the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital in London in 1860.
In this work, the authors argue that studying nursing history provides nursing students with a “sense of professional identity, a useful methodological research skill, and a context for evaluating information” (Keeling & Ramos, 1995). Therefore the purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the history of American nursing from the middle of the 19th century through present-day nursing practice.
Nursing has indeed evolved over the course of more than 150 years since the inception of the first Nightingale schools in the United States, but it has not done so without significant challenges along the way. In fact, many of these challenges persist today: issues surrounding gender, race, socioeconomic status, educational requirements for entry into practice, professional licensure, pandemic disease, war, and nursing shortages.
To assist mid–19th-century women with their caretaker role, Florence Nightingale published Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not. In the preface of this book, first published in 1859, Nightingale explained that her notes on nursing were “meant simply to give hints for thought to women who have personal charge of the health of others. Every woman … or at least almost every woman has, at one time or another of her life, charge of the personal health of somebody, whether child or invalid—in other words, every woman is a nurse” (Nightingale, 1859, p. 8). Although more than 150 years have passed since Nightingale wrote her book, and today's nurses are professionals, many of her notes on nursing continue to be relevant to contemporary nursing practice.
THE BEGINNING OF NURSING TRAINING PROGRAMS
Florence Nightingale is well known for her work during the Crimean War (1853 to 1856). Her wartime experience shaped her ideas about the value of the trained nurse and was later the impetus for the creation of the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital in London in 1860.