Twenty-First Century Images of Nurse and Nursing - Essay Example

This has had the effect that the nurses are uncertain about their responsibilities which lead to impaired judgment and poor decision making which has an impact to the quality of nursing care that the patients receive (Burton and Ormrod, 2011). In order to avoid the uncertainty among nurses, there is need to develop a nurse training program that will equip all nurses with the necessary skills to run a nursing unit. Nursing educators should ensure that all student nurses have undergone the training therefore, when hospitals choose nurses randomly he or she will be able to run the unit effectively.

The responsibilities bestowed among nurses, especially in managing other nurses in patient care, make it one of the factors that define nursing in the 21st century. Emergence of nursing school in the late 19th century is another factor that has influenced contemporary nursing. The way that nursing schools were run at the beginning has remained in most of the nursing schools worldwide with very little modifications. An apprenticeship model was involved in training the nurses, which would take about two months; they started with making beds before progressing to other more complicated tasks.

The length of the program, was initially one year, however, it was later increased to 2 to 3 years depending on the location; this duration of training has remained up to date with the longest duration of training graduate nurses being four years in some countries. Without the establishment of the nursing training schools, the field of nursing would not be as what we know it today. Another very popular historical event that shaped nursing is the World War I and a nurse by the name Florence nightingale who took care of the wounded soldiers in the war.

Florence nightingale who is idolized world over for her selfless efforts defined the course that nursing should take as a profession that is fully dedicated to caring for the sick and aged and in