Nursing

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Nursing

I . Introduction

Nursing is the care given to the sick , injured , or infirm . Nursing also includes the rehabilitation of handicapped persons , the prevention of disease , and the promotion of good health

Qualified nurses work in hospitals and clinics , nursing homes , schools public health agencies , industry , private homes , and physician 's offices . The United States government employs nurses in the armed services , the Veterans Administration , the Public Health Service , and other agencies . Many nurses work for international organizations , such as the World

Health Organization , an agency of the United Nations

Thesis Statement : This study scrutinizes the history of nursing and its organizations . Thus , know the details about the programmes and education available for professional nursing

II . Background

A . History of Nursing

The history of the care of the sick is as old as the history of man Nursing evolved slowly through the centuries , from the most ancient times , when medicine was an aspect of magic , to today , when it is solidly used on the natural and social sciences . The heritage of nursing springs from the concept of actual assistance among people . Religious s have been especially concerned with care of the sick . For example , the medieval military-religious of the Knights Hospitalers of St . John (now known as the Knights of Malta ) was founded in the 11th century to aid pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land . Later nursing was also done by untrained lay volunteers , such as Walt Whitman and Dorothea Dix , who worked with the Northern wounded during the American Civil War (Dolan , 110-117

Modern nursing as a profession began in the mid-19th century with the advanced and enlightened ideas of the English nurse Florence Nightingale . Through her work with a handpicked group of nurses in Scutari (Now Uskudar , Turkey , during the Crimean War (1854-1856 , Miss Nightingale dramatically demonstrated that skilled nursing care and improved sanitary conditions greatly reduced the mortality rates of wounded British soldiers . In 1860 , a school of nursing was established at ST . Thomas ' Hospital in London with money contributed to a fund honouring Miss Nightingale 's achievements in Turkey . It was the first independently financed school of nursing and the first to be administered exclusively by qualified practitioners of the profession (Dolan , 110-117 . For the first time , students were offered a program of systematic instruction in the medical sciences , as well as supervised experience with many different types of patients

The school was an unqualified success , and its graduates were soon in demand . The basic principles of the so-called Nightingale system were widely adopted throughout the world and still form the foundation for nursing study and education today . The first nursing school in the United States based on the Nightingale system was founded at Bellevue Hospital in New York City in 1873 (Dolan , 110-117

As nursing became a widely recognized profession , nursing organizations began to be formed . The first in England was the British Nurses Association , later known as the Royal College of Nursing and National Council of Nurses established in...