Nursing Today: a Time of Transformation - Essay Example

"Nursing Today: a Time of Transformation" is a worthy example of a paper on care.
Chapter 1 of the text is titled “Nursing Today: A Time Of Transformation” and chapter 1 focuses on three subjects including the current standing of the nursing profession in the United States, the opportunities that nurses with an advanced level degree of nursing can explore, and the future outlook of the profession of nursing. Currently, in the United States, the nursing profession is regarded as the group that consists of the most members who provide healthcare services. For years the profession has been dominated by female incumbents but gradually the male incumbents are even increasing. In the region of the United States, there has been an increase in the number of nurses who age below 30 years old. A certified nurse can work in various healthcare settings including ambulatory care, hospitals and they even provide door to door nursing services. With higher-level education, nurses can occupy important positions in organizations. Nurses with immense experience as well as a degree in nursing can manage to gain the position of nurse managers and can even gain employment as clinical nurse specialists. Nurses can even start their own businesses in the field of healthcare. The employment outlook for the profession of nursing seems to be quite positive as the BLS has reported that by the period of 2016 the employment outlook for the profession will increase by 22% (Black, 2014). The BLS even reports that nurses will be able to earn higher salaries depending on their experience and education and BLS has even reported that during 2012 the average salary earned by nurses was more than $64,000 (Black, 2014).

The second chapter is titled The Historical And Social Context Of Nursing and this chapter focuses on both the historical context as well as the social context of the profession. The concept of nursing came into existence with Nightingale who basically belonged to the superior class and used to take care of those individuals who were poor and not feeling well. She gained her initial training from Germany and was involved in helping the wounded soldiers during the period of the Crimean War. Later during the Civil War that took place during the period of 1861 till the period of 1873 several women started working as nurses due to lack of proper healthcare and at that time some very significant names of nurses evolved (Black, 2014). These nurses included Dorothea L. Dix and she provided training to other nurses which helped in dealing with the difficulties of war. After the Civil War, a major turn in the profession was witnessed as formal methods of training started taking place. Initially when nursing started developing it was seen as a profession made for the female gender because the female gender was mainly assigned the role of caring for their children and their husband. It was believed that the same roles can be carried out by females for sick people. The male gender started entering the profession after the period of WWII. Nurses have to face various challenges that are social in context. These challenges include the violence that they experience in the organizations they work, the issue of diversity has even challenged nurses, and their methods of providing care, and then there is the issue of the decrease in the supply of nurses which is resulting in shortages.