A Major theme in the Professional Nursing Practice book was how woman in early nursing practices

weren’t given a job title of Nurse but were just expected to act like a nurse because it was their role in
society. As a woman, their job in the society was to take care of their family members, sick relatives, and
to make sure that the house stayed clean (Blais & Hayes,2016, p. 38). Also, seen throughout the reading
was how female nurses were noticed more and wanted when soldiers were dying of infection, bad
sanitary practices, and mal- nutrition at war. The woman weren’t welcomed by the males but they did
their job and helped save lives. For example, during the Crimean War the death rate was 43% and
people were worried that the soldiers weren’t getting adequate care and Florence Nightingale was
asked to come over with a group of nurses to help save the soldiers and put in some better practices.
She implemented better classes and diet kitchens, a laundry room, and reading rooms for the soldiers.
She also made sure to keep the environment clean with incorporating scrubbing and cleaning of the
wards and to empty out the waste near them. While she was there in a short amount of time she
lowered the death rate by 2% (Blais & Hayes,2016, p. 42). Something important was in 1900B.C. which
was “The earliest documentation of law governing the practice of medicine is the Code of
Hammurabi” (Blais & Hayes,2016, p. 39). The code had documentation of the regulations about
sanitation, surgery guidelines, overall public health, violator’s fee, and the difference between animal
and human practice. The history of nursing helps me better understand the nurse I want to be when I
graduate. The history shows the compassion, the joy, the drive, the determination that I should have
and want to have to help put my patients and do the best possible job that I can do.

Blais & Hayes. (2016). Professional Nursing Practice (6th ed.). New York: Pearson.