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Florence Nightingale and Modern Nursing |
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Friday, 14 March 2008 |
We all know nurses to be these smiling professionals in immaculate white medical nursing uniforms, always ready and willing to help us with out health care needs. This however, has not always been the case.
Before the late years of the nineteenth century, nurses were viewed and treated as ordinary (and sometimes, not so respectable) caretakers. When they were deployed in far-away places (in times of war, for example), they were expected to perform a variety of tasks, many of which did not really involve directly taking care of the sick and dying. A nursing probationary in 1884 for example, wrote in her diary of days when she swept and dusted the ward, cleaned the refrigerator, scrubbed the waste pails, basins, bath tub and sink, cleaned the bath room and ward kitchen, polished the brass and zinc, and kept up a general scouring and scrubbing.
It was through the pioneering efforts of one woman that nursing eventually became professionalized, and this godsend was, of course, Florence Nightingale.
Florence Nightingale was an English woman born to a wealthy patrician family. Despite her familys vehement objections (they thought nursing to be a job solely for the poorer members of society), Florence worked as a nurse and cared for the poor and underprivileged in London.
More than her work taking for the sick however, the world is in debt to her because of her work in laying out the basic foundations of proper modern nursing. When she was sent to the Crimean War to help take care of the wounded and sick soldiers, she noticed how many of the men who were supposed to be recuperating at the hospitals were dying. She concluded that it was the unsanitary environment and the soldiers poor diet that was worsening their conditions.
Using the data and observation she gathered from this Crimean experience, she wrote Notes on Nursing, a comprehensive guide-book that is considered to be the first textbook for nurses. Basically, the book dispensed practical, how-to advice on things like cleanliness, light, variety and personal hygiene.
Apart from the book, another important contribution the great nurse made to the development of nursing was the establishment of the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses. Located in the St. Thomas Hospital in London, the school is the first one to offer formal education to aspiring nurses.
The effects of the two contributions from Ms. Nightingale can still be felt today. The book, it can be said, helped push for reforms in hospitals. It resulted to a cleaner and more hygienic environment and a general improvement of hospitals and their services. The school on the other hand, pioneered the establishment of nursing as a legitimate profession and helped earn nurses the respect and admiration they deserve.
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About the author
Charlie Angeles is affiliated with a company that sells medical nursing uniforms like lab coats and scrubs. Visit their site for more information on how you can buy medical uniforms.
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