Life And Career Of The Nursing Profession

“If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault of not of the disease, but of the nursing. I use the word nursing for want of a better” (Nightingale, 1860, p. 8). While Nightingale stressed the impact of one’s environment to promote healing, Virginia Henderson aimed to establish on the fundamental needs as a knowledge base to guide Professional nursing practice. Henderson emphasized on fourteen components required for effective nursing care which includes: breathing normally, eating and drinking adequately, elimination of body wastes, movement and posturing, sleep and rest, select suitable clothes-dress and undress, maintaining body temperature, keeping body clean and well groomed, avoiding dangers in the environment, communication, worship according to one’s faith, work accomplishments, play or participate in various forms of recreation, and learn, discover, or satisfy the curiosity (Fernandes et al., 2015). Her division of the fourteen components acknowledged patient needs with a holistic approach that is applied through the nursing process in a clinical setting.

Virginia Henderson’s contribution to the nursing profession has been very influential. One of her contributions is her well known definition of nursing which request the nurse to be an expert independent practitioner equipped with the right knowledge in basic nursing care to achieve the goals of proper patient care (McCrae, 2012). Her definition along with the fourteen basic needs brought huge changes in nursing practice. The fourteen fundamental needs gives support and assistance to provide proper nursing care. In addition, Henderson also understood the importance of using the nursing process, she stated as part of the nursing process, it was vital for the nurse to collect, analyze and develop an optimal plan of care to ensure the best quality of care and patient outcomes (McCrae, 2012). Henderson defined nursing as a concept. Henderson regarded person, health, environment and nursing as follows, Person: The patient is a person who needs support attaining independence and well-being or sometimes peaceful passing. The body and mind are one entity, not to be separated in care. Patient and

Since the 1900s the Nursing Profession has continued to grow and change tremendously. Nursing has become of the most sought after jobs today for its glorified assumptions. Al though Nursing has changed one thing remains they same, Nursing is all about the well being of patients.

Alice Magaw was born November 9, 1860, in Cashocton, Ohio. Besides her contribution to nursing, little is known about Alice’s personal life and what inspired her to enter the field on nursing. However, one can guess that she saw a demand for nurses and had a passion for caring for others. During this time period, nursing schools were incorporated into hospitals. Alice Magaw attended the Women’s Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago from 1887 to1889, around the time that nursing began to transform from a lower class occupation to a respectable profession. After graduation Alice worked as a private duty nurse in Chicago. In 1893, Alice began her work under Dr. William J. and Charles H.

Nursing as a profession is an incredibly varied field, with as many opinions on how and why as there are nurses. It is therefore incumbent on each nurse to determine what aspects of nursing research and history will influence her practice. This work is presented as a Professional Nursing Mission Statement for the author. In the following pages, the governing bodies, ethical code, professional traits, nursing theorist and theory, and historical figure that guide personal nursing practice are presented with scenarios demonstrating their effects. Providing the building blocks for an individual approach to nursing will result in a deeper understanding of practice.

Imogene King was born in 1921in Iowa. Growing up, she dreamed of being a teacher but began nursing school to escape her small town life. She graduated with a diploma in nursing in 1945, then three years later earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education and worked as medical-surgical instructor and an assistant director at St. John’s School of Nursing until 1958, fulfilling her lifelong dream of being a teacher wither nursing career. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing in 1957 and a doctorate in education in 1961 (Imogene King, 2011). King then became an associate professor at Loyola University in Chicago and formed a master’s degree program that was based on her nursing concepts, which later became the framework for her theory.

According to the American Nurses Association, “Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (ANA, 2010b). Nursing has come a long ways. From primitive times when caring for the sick was predominantly the rule of medicine-men who acquired the skills from their ancestors, to the era when it was viewed as a mean profession for prostitutes and nowadays when it is considered a noble profession with trained and skilled personnel.

Quintilian once said “It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.” I always loved helping people and I would turn on the television and look for shows related to nursing. “One Born Every Minute” was one of the few shows I watched on television that interest me and made me eager to want help with the birth of babies. This show captured the hardships and difficulty of giving birth and the experience of the procedure.

Dr. Van starts off by telling me she has been in nursing practice for 45 years. That seemed like a really long time to me, but maybe not. In her time as being a nurse she has worked in many fields such as administration, management, medical surgical unit, staff development and community health. Dr. Van was totally an all-around nurse. She is the perfect example that there’s more to ‘Just a Nurse’. Her first job after nursing school in 1969 was at St. John’s hospital as a staff nurse. At St. John’s she worked in the medical surgical unit. Working in the surgical unit back in those days you were able to meet a lot of people and saw all types of diseases because it wasn’t any specialties back in that time. As she explains her experience at St.

Throughout history, society has considered women to be the natural caregivers of children, family, and community. Women were naturally thought of as nurses because the act was said to be an extension of their role in the home. They were called in to homes to help deliver babies or as wet nurses to breastfeed. In the 1800’s, women began taking care of soldiers. It was then that Florence Nightingale cared for soldiers in the Crimean War. During this time she revolutionized the role by setting standards of cleanliness and reducing infection. The legacy of nursing continues to be enriched by those who continue to follow the example of nursing pioneers. They refuse to be bound by others’ views

The core concept that is similar to both Orem and Henderson’s Theory is the practice of nursing to support the recovery from illness to achieve optimal health (Administration, 2011).

Like any scientific discipline, the nursing profession has evolved over time. Nurses, once regarded as housemaids and lower class citizens, now hold positions of authority and stature in our modern society. These changes in the profession are attributed to the many nurse theorists who devoted their lives to the improvement of patient care. Through their theoretical advancements, the public perception of nursing has gone from dismissive to reverential. Today, our culture considers the nursing profession to be one of the most rewarding and respected career paths an individual can pursue. Through a review of one such patient theorist, Dorothea Orem, one can witness this change in the perception of the nursing profession. As a first semester student in a professional nursing course of study, Orem has already influenced my personal nursing philosophy.

Nursing is a very complex career that at many times requires one to be a leader. Nurses can be leaders in formal roles and also on the unit during any given shift. Nursing is a career that truly tests the character and attributes of those who choose to enter this career. Leadership in nursing is vital in creating a successful environment for patients. According to Stichler (2006), “effective leadership is essential to transforming organizations into environments that are safe for both patients and staff” (p. 422). Therefore, it is vital that as new nurses start out his or her careers that they learn from great leaders who are already in the profession. There are several great leaders working in the field who have a plethora of

During the past decade nurse theorists and educationalists have been attempting to establish nursing as an academic discipline Nurse education is rapidly moving away from a single scientific or technical colleges of nursing into institutes of higher education. In this paper I had the privilege to discuss how Nursing has evolved from being an occupation to being a profession and an academic discipline.

Under the guide of Linda Richard in 1876 to graduating, to becoming a co-founder of a nursing university in 1892, to army-nurse, saving hundreds from a disease in the Spanish-American war of 1898, and finally becoming a caring leader creating an environment for new nurses, and teaching fellow nurses the appropriate way to care for their patients. Anna Maxwell has gone through various challenges in the span of her early nursing career. Becoming a strong historical figure in the late nineteen hundreds, but still having the gentleness of a nurse to care for her patients.