Evolution of the Nursing Profession

Understanding the evolution of the nursing profession is essential, especially for aspiring nursing students. Every day things change, and the nursing profession is not exceptional—the nursing professional’s care changes from time to time due to technological growth.

This article discusses the nursing profession’s origin and evolution to help you understand new trends and how the nursing profession has developed over time. You will learn how the nursing profession has evolved over the years. This article benefits both nursing students and aspiring nursing students; if you are a student reading this article will be a significant advantage to you. Let’s get started!

What is the evolution of the nursing profession?

The evolution of the nursing profession does not stop; it continues to develop new technologies and methods of patient care and healthcare management. Therefore, all nurses must keep track of the nursing profession’s advances daily to improve performance and patient satisfaction.

The evolution of the nursing profession is the changes in medical care from the past and the present. This blog will discuss the development in both the past and present to help you have an extensive understanding of the nursing profession’s growth. We will provide a brief history of nursing from its origin until today.

Origin of the nursing evolution

Many people ask, “what is the origin of the nursing profession?” understanding this theory is very important. It helps nursing students learn various trends and ways of providing quality medical care to their patients. In the past years, nursing started from home; the family members used to take care of the sick until they recovered from an illness.

According to nursing history, the first hospital was established by the Roman Empire; this time, the first nursing documents were written; as the years went by, many nursing hospitals were established. When the catholic church spread in Europe, it built monitories with hospitals equipped with nurses.

The following nursing professional evolution was women started being educated to become nurses in some hospitals. During this time, nursing education was based on observation which took only two to three years. After this training, the nursing institution posted them to nursing hospitals to become full-time nurses.

Evolution of the nursing profession

The modern nursing evolution began in 1845; a woman called Florence Nightingale guided several women in treating sick and injured soldiers. The treatment practices she introduced led to the improvement of nursing care back in the day. As this went by, hospitals and nursing institutions grew larger.

All students from different backgrounds were allowed to enroll in nursing programs to become part of the healthcare providers. Technology development plays a significant role in nursing by advancing the patients’ beds, blood pressure devices and many more nursing care devices. In the 1960s, modern nursing care emerged.

Since then, nurses have continued to be trained to handle emergency care and other critical conditions. The specialized nursing professionals were purposely trained to provide quality care and treatment to all hospital patients. The nursing evolution development in its educational system and enrolling more students to learn about new nursing technologies.

The evolution of nursing professionals in the modern day

The common difference between the past and present nursing professionals is based on education growth and nursing technology development. To become a registered nurse today, you must have a nursing college certificate or an advanced degree in nursing. The study of nursing will take a few years to learn the theoretical parts of nursing and train in hospitals for practical experience.

Today nursing students are required to train under the supervision of professionally certified nurses to provide them with knowledge and practical nursing experience. After getting your first degree in nursing, it is important to advance your nursing profession by learning new medical technology and how to use it in intensive nursing care. This also helps to be well-prepared for the future nursing workforce.

Today the evolution of nursing has played a considerable role in advanced technology in healthcare provision. The nursing profession evolution has also led to reducing paperwork since the patient data is computerized and digitally updated. More advanced nursing education and technology have helped to improve medical care in the modern day; this article will help people understand how has the nursing profession evolved over the years.

The founder of the nursing profession

Who is the founder of nursing? This is a common question that every person is curious to know the answer to. Florence Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing. According to nursing history, Florence Nightingale led the first team of nurses to provide medical care in British army hospitals during the war.

In 1854, Florence Nightingale and her team of nurses arrived in Turkey to address the hospital conditions reported in the newspaper. Coming to Turkey, the hospital facilities were worse than reported in the newspaper; the hospitals were overcrowded, with patients covered with dirty clothes full of blood spots and low water and energy supply. After Florence Nightingale analyzed the hospital, she determined that the proportion of reported cases in the first months was about 32%.

Nursing history shows that Florence Nightingale never believed in bacterial illnesses and unhygienic conditions. She worked hard to ensure that the team of nurses worked towards sanitizing the hospital wards and ensuring all the patients were cleaned and sleeping in clean hospital beddings. Florence Nightingale provided nutritional food, clean water and a good supply of medicines.

What is the historical background of nursing?

As a nursing student, it is essential to understand the background history of nursing; this will help you all through your career and even when writing your research paper based on the nursing evolution or nursing history. The term nurse or nurses is derived from the Latin word “Nutrica,” which means to nurture, nourish or improve. Nursing is an old art that has developed over the years until today.

Many people have provided quality nursing care throughout human history, and the formal concept of nursing understanding and knowledge has been tested in the past years. Nursing care providers in different societies have provided quality medical care throughout the history of nursing. Since then, women have been caregivers and have helped in child care and health management at home.

Throughout nursing history, nurses were formally trained by observation. Health was primarily provided in the holy surrounding, especially the Catholic-built monitories used for nursing care. As the years went by, Florence Nightingale transformed and specialized modern nursing by giving special training to her team of nurses.

What are the 4 periods in the history of nursing?

In nursing history, four significant periods contribute highly to the evolution of the nursing profession. These periods include the following:

  1. Intuitive nursing period or the medieval nursing period

In this period or stage of nursing, there was no nursing training. The nursing care was provided out of sympathy for sick people and passion for helping affected people. In this stage, women generally provided nursing care; nursing care was seen as a natural nurturing task for women in society. Nursing care and training were based on experience and observation; during the medieval period, people viewed illnesses as possessing evil spirits; many believed that the only cure was a medicine man who used charms to heal a particular disease.

  1. Middle Age or the period of apprentice nursing

In the middle stage, nursing care was provided by campaigners, convicts and religious settings. Nursing care was done without formal training; highly experienced nurses guided people to give nursing care. This type of nursing care was started by a religion, especially the catholic church.

During this period, people started to protest against who destruction of established hospitals and schools by the Roman Empire. Nurses ran away to save their lives; this led to a shortage of health providers. A man named Theodore Fliedner and his wife Frederika started the first formal nursing training institute that took three months to study nursing.

  1. Florence Nightingale era, or the period of trained nursing

Nursing care was influenced by the Crimean war, high social awareness, and increased nursing education training in this period. Florence Nightingale studied a three-month nursing course and offered women nurses training to provide medical for the sick and injured people during the Crimean war. The Nightingale nursing school was established in London in 1860; the nursing school trained more nurses. After graduating, nurses travelled to other countries to provide healthcare and manage hospitals.

  1. Modern nursing or the 20th-century nursing

In the modern nursing period, nurses’ licensing started with specialization and diagnosis of illness. The nursing diploma program commenced, and the advanced nursing degree provided more advanced medical care to the patients. Today health is viewed as a fundamental human right, and it should be involved in the community through advanced technology.

The expansion of nursing roles is developed daily to improve nursing performance. Today nurses use mechanical energy for medical diagnosis and treatment. The development of computers has reduced paperwork and the safe storage of patient’s health records and data.

To wrap-up

Understanding the evolution of the nursing profession is essential, especially for nursing students. In this blog, we have provided you with the history of nursing and how it developed since that day. For more information concerning the nursing profession or evolution, visit our platform at bestnursingwritingservices.com today.

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