Historical Development of Nursing - Essay Example

? Historical Development of Nursing ‘ Historical Development of Nursing The word “nursing” comes from an English words “norice” and “nurice” from the middle ages. These words are derived from an old French word “nourice.” The French word came from a “nutricia,” a Latin word that means someone who nourishes (Nicola & Frances, 2012). Hence, nursing is the collaborative and autonomous care of people of all ages wither in good health or sick. It involves; care of the sick, disabled, prevention of sickness and the promotion of general health, public education management of health systems and development of health policies. Before the birth of Christ, nursing did not exist as a distinct profession. It started out as caring for sick members of one’s family. At this time, it was viewed as a way of expressing love and showing compassion one’s family member. It was mainly a woman’s work and no education or training was required. Between and 100 and 500 AD, nursing was mainly done by religious groups mainly churches (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). The establishment of the first general hospital by Fabiola in Rome was a huge step in nursing. In the 16th century, women were required to stay at home and look after their families (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). This resulted in the deterioration of nursing care because at the time, it was still a profession for women only. Between 1654 and 1656 nursing was realized as sisters of charity took good care of wounded soldiers in the battlefields of Arras and Sedan in France. By 1960, the sister of charity was operating in 40 other countries besides France (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). However, according to Elizabeth and Jerome (2011), it was not until after Florence Nightingale that nursing started to become a reality in the world. After realizing that very few opportunities were given to women, Florence Nightingale started taking care of the ill while visiting the poor. Here, she developed an interest in a career in nursing. Her most notable contributions happened during the Crimean war. This is after she received reports wounded soldiers were in horrible conditions. In October 1854 together with 38 women that she had trained as nurses, she volunteered to take care of wounded soldiers in the battlefield (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). After noticing that there was limited supply for medicine, overworked medical staff and poor hygiene resulting in fatalities among the soldiers, Nightingale appealed to the British government to find a solution to this problem. The British government commissioned the designing of a mobile hospital to be shipped to the battlefields. As a result, the Renkioi Hospital was built, leading to a low death rate remarkably. This was as a result of Florence Nightingale’s efforts. During this time, she was referred to as “the lady with the lamp,” a nick name she received from her night rounds in the hospitals making sure every sick person was cared for. The Nightingale fund was formed in 1855 to fund the training of nurses. Through this fund, she set up the Nightingale training school in July 1860. As a result, by 1882many nurses from this training School had become nurses at leading hospitals (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). After Nightingale, nursing saw a revolution. For the first time, training for careers in nursing was advertised in 1860. Nightingale came up with the concept “the body’s reparative process.” In this concept, she emphasized that the recovery of a patient greatly depends on the hygiene conditions of his or her environment. In 1952, Hildegard Peplau came put forward the interpersonal relation theory of nursing. It is also referred to as psychodynamic nursing (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). The theory stipulates that nursing involves the interaction of two or more people with the same goal and is an art of healing. In 1955 Virginia Henderson came up with a notion that, for someone to recover properly he or she needed the 14 basic human (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). They include; drinking and eating adequately, breathing normally, maintaining desirable positions, eliminating body waste, suitable clothes, sleep, rest, cleanliness, maintaining body temperature, among others. In 1960 Faye Abdellah put forward the theory that nursing care aimed at meeting the patients emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). Ida Orlando came up with a theory that stipulates that a patient has personal needs that when met the result is less stress, which increase his or her chances of well-being in 1962. In 1968 Dorothy Johnson came up with a theory that stated that a patient’s recovery greatly depended how he or she adapted to the illness. Due to this she came up with the idea that the goal of nursing was to reduce stress in patients to make recovery for easier. Martha Rogers came up with the humanistic theory of nursing. Here, she put across that nursing aims at promoting health and preventing illness through humanistic science (Nicola & Frances, 2012). In 1971, Dorothea Elizabeth came up with the self care theory. The theory stipulates that when someone cannot fulfill his or her developmental, social, psychological, and biological needs is when he or she requires nursing care. In the same year, Imogene King put forward a theory that stipulated that nursing involved positive communication to enable the client to adapt positively to the environment. In 1972, Betty Neuman came up with the Neuman system model for the recovery of patients through stress reduction (Elizabeth & Jerome, 2011). In 1979, Roy came up with a model that was based on psychological, social, and physiological dependence or independence. In 1979, Jean Watson came up with the theory of human caring. The theory defines outcomes of nursing in a humanistic aspect (Nicola & Frances, 2012). These are the major contributions in nursing throughout history. However, there have been other influences to the nursing. They include religion, psychology, and education among others. For example, according to Gemma and Lorraine (2008), religion has influenced nursing a lot. Many training schools for nurses have been established. Christian churches such as the Catholic Church. Psychology has also played a huge role in understanding the best way of giving nursing care to clients. References Elizabeth, W & Jerome, C. (2011). Historical recovery heroes - Florence Nightingale. Mental Health and Social Inclusion, Vol. 15 Iss: 1. Gemma, S. Lorraine, R. (2008). Introducing Skills for Psychosocial Interventions Into Undergraduate Mental Health Nurse Education. Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 3 Iss: 2. Nicola, N. & Frances, H. (2012). A Systems Perspective on Nursing Productivity. Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 26 Iss: 2. Read More