preview

The Empowerment Of The Nursing Profession Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Empowerment in Nursing History
Arrin Padilla-Geiser
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR 501

Introduction: Nightingale in History
Florence Nightingale was considered a trailblazer within the nursing profession. Her understanding of what was needed to help heal a patient, was at the forefront of the nursing profession. Her ideals and implementation of these ideals were what helped to forge evidence based practice (EBP), the healing environment and what helped her advance as a nurse, even before the nursing profession was considered a profession. Smith & Parker (2014) state this of Nightingale, “She defined nursing as putting the person in the best condition for nature to act, insisting that the focus of nursing was on health and the natural healing process, not on disease and reparation,” (Smith & Parker, 2015, p. 4).
In looking at what Nightingale has contributed to the nursing profession, her use of empowerment during her time helped to establish her role within the nursing profession. Page & Czuba (1999) define empowerment as “a process that challenges our assumptions about the way things are and can be. It challenges our basic assumptions about power, helping, achieving, and succeeding,” (Page & Czuba, 1999). Her ability to recognize what was needed to help her patients was what helped to establish her leadership role during the Crimean war and throughout her nursing profession. Daly (2014), has this to say about Nightingale, “Miss Nightingale was interested
Get Access
Related
Get Access