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Personal Reflections on Nursing

Nursing has always been the most exciting and challenging career for me. I have been a licensed nurse for a little more than a year now, and driving home tonight from a supposedly 12-hour shift that turned into a 16-hour shift, where my brain and body are just exhausted, this is one of those nights when – I clock out totally hungry and tired but leaving work with a sense of fulfillment. A lot of my friends would always say, “We can’t do what you do, Bernie.” No, not everyone can do this kind of profession.

In fact, many nurses believe that nursing is not a job but a career. So, what’s the difference? A job is simply a routine where you show up to your workplace and operate on autopilot. A job pays the bills. I know a lot of people that stay in a job even though they’re bored, burnt out because change is not an option. Change fears them, so they work to collect a paycheck. I was one of those people for so many years until I quit my job in the sales banking industry in 2011 and became a laboratory technician, which led me to my nursing career.

The Historical Evolution of Nursing

Nursing evolves as a society, and healthcare needs and policies change. This field responds and adapts to changes. Florence Nightingale is the first nursing theorist. It was in 1860 when Nightingale began the reformation of nursing from occupation to profession by establishing the Nursing school at Saint Thomas Hospital in London. In the early nineteenth century, hospitals were called “pesthouses,” they were dirty, overcrowded facilities filled with patients. The care providers were untrained, and poor hygienic practices were used, which resulted in high infection and mortality rates. In the mid-1800s, a German pastor in Kaiser Werth, Germany, named Theodor Fliedner, established the first school of nursing.

Florence Nightingale: The Beacon of Modern Nursing

It was in 1851 when Florence Nightingale joined the program and became the superintendent of a charity hospital in 1853, during the Crimean War, when the news of casualties and deaths among the soldiers that Nightingale sent a letter to the secretary of war to offer her services to lead a group of 38 other nurses to provide care for the wounded soldiers in Scutari, Turkey. She provided her care and applied the nursing skills she learned from the Kaisersworth program. This was when her leadership and skills improved the quality of care and sanitation at the Barrack Hospital the mortality rate dropped significantly.

Was through Nightingale’s patience, dedication, and empathic treatment she provided to the wounded and killed soldiers, which made a significant psychological impact on the soldiers as she made her rounds at night with her lamp through the rows of injured and sick patients. The soldiers grew to respect her and took strength from her. She was known as the “Lady with the Lamp.” The small lamp that was her trademark continues to be the symbol of the nursing profession around the world. It was her standards of nursing care that established and gained the respect of the medical community that improved the image of nursing.

In 1860, Florence Nightingale began the reformation of nursing from occupation to profession. This was when she established a nursing school in Saint Thomas Hospital, London, that follows the standard of admissions and training. The “Nightingale Plan” became the model of nursing education. Students had to pass strict procedures for admission, the amount of training lasted for one year and kept complete records of formal instruction and practical experience for each graduated student. Graduates of her training school were called the new “Nightingale nurses” that improved patient care by such measures as good hygiene and sanitation, patient observation, accurate record keeping, nutritional improvements, and the introduction and use of new medical equipment.

Nursing as a Career and a Passion

As I read more about the history of how nursing became, a profession makes me a strong believer that nursing is not a job but a career. A career is something you plan for and work at. It involves constant change and expansion whether you work in one place or move around during your professional life. Working in a healthcare setting led me to have a passion for compassion. This passion for patient care led me to fulfill my journey to going back to school to become a registered nurse. Just like Florence Nightingale, her standards of training to make nursing a profession involves continuous nourishment of new experiences, education, knowledge, skills, risk-taking, and challenges. A career is like a living organism that changes and grows over time.

References

Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing theorists and their work. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Dossey, B. M., Beck, D. M., Selanders, L. C., Attewell, A., & Johnson, J. H. (2020). Florence Nightingale today: Healing, leadership, global action. Sigma Theta Tau.
McDonald, L. (2014). Florence Nightingale and the early origins of evidence-based nursing. Evidence-Based Nursing, 17(4), 105-108.
Nelson, S., & Gordon, S. (2006). The Complexities of Care: Nursing Reconsidered. Cornell University Press.
Sellman, D. (2011). What makes a good nurse: why the virtues are important for nurses. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Stanley, D. (2012). Celluloid devils: a research study of male nurses in feature films. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68(11), 2526-2537.
Willis, E., Elsom, S., & Keleher, H. (2008). Sociological concepts of nursing. In Sociology for nurses (pp. 34-48). Polity.

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