Nursing Foundations

A. Nursing origins
Nursing is the youngest professions but one of the oldest arts. It
evolved from the familial roles of nurturing and caretaking. Many
responsibilities were taken. Those reflected more than caring more than
curing.
B. The Nightingale reformation
In the Crimean war, many British military suffered terribly and died.
Nightingale then offered a strategic plan to reconcile this problem. She
proposed to send a team of women trained in nursing skills whom will
care for the soldiers. Nightingale selected women with reputations
beyond reproach. She realized intuitively that only people with devotion
and idealism could accept the discipline and hard work necessary for
the looming task.
Nightingale supervised the women. They cleaned the filth,
eliminated the vermin, and improved ventilation, nutrition and sanitation.
They helped control infection and gangrene and lowered the death rate to
1%.
Many families and soldiers adored Nightingale. Many donated funds
were given. She used the money to start the first training school for
nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in England. This school became the model
for others in Europe and the United States. Nightingale changed the
negative image of nursing to a positive one.
C. Contemporary nursing
The training of nurses consisted of learning the art. (ability to
perform an act skillfully) of nursing. The more experienced nurses or
mentors informally passed skills to students. In another part, nursing
practice also added new dimension: science. By developing the body of
scientific knowledge, nurses can predict which nursing interventions are
most likely to produce desired outcomes.
Nursing has undergone a similar scientific review. The analysis of
the outcome becomes the basis of nursing theory. Nursing theory is the
proposed ideas about what is involved in the process called nursing.