Changes in nursing in terms of adapting to constant change

Cultural Changes in Nursing

Florence Nightingale is very well-known as the face of nursing profession, it was her alongside with her
subordinates who demonstrated the undeniable importance of military nursing care during the Crimean
War. She compiled her thoughts and published “Notes on Nursing” in 1859, which is considered the first
nursing manual of any kind. This was the start, the first adaptation of nursing profession. Men at near
death situations required urgent intervention. Nightingale alongside with her 38 volunteers were sent to
a military camp (soliant.com) . It was in this scenario that nursing care was brought to the patient’s side
rather than the usual approach—patient going the distance to demand healthcare.

First culture diversity

When nursing first began, interested candidate (composed of only women) received their education
from hospitals, where they often worked 12 hour days, seven days a week. During this time, trainees
performed tasks such as cleaning, dusting, and doing the dishes. After two to three years, they were
given more responsibilities, such as sterilizing hospital equipment and cleaning the operating rooms
(soliant.com).

Historically, nursing has not always been a predominately female profession. Men mostly made up the
numbers of what it was nursing in the time before Florence Nightingale. That all changed with her
perception of nursing as a female only career, according to David Ross, Liverpool John Moores
University, in the journal Links to Health and Social Care. But in 1947, the sex segregation of nurse
registries came to an end, with men being allowed education and employment equity by the 1960s.
Furthermore, in 1960, men were also allowed to become members of the RCN, this was in response to
the shortage of nurses and the increasing demand for healthcare, the government encouraged the
recruitment of men into both mental and general nursing aspects of the profession (nursingtimes.net)

Second culture diversity

In its early days, the nursing profession was associated with Victorian ideals of womanhood such as
dignity, morality and virtue. However, not all women are granted with this privilege, at the time, Black
women were thought to not possess such ideals, and so they were prevented from pursuing career in
the field. In fact, it wasn’t until 1879 that the first Black nurse—Mary Mahoney—graduated from an
American school of nursing. Mahoney joined her colleagues Martha Minerva Franklin and Adah B.
Thoms, both founders of the 1908 National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), to
challenge the rampant issue of racial discrimination in the registered nursing profession. At the time,
many of the American Nurses Association’s state chapters refused to admit Black nurses (The Atlanta
Journal Constitution, 2020).

In 1935 during the Great Depression, financial devastation occurred and the number of nurses
decreased drastically. This led to the scarcity in the supply of nursing. Health care and nursing leaders
used a trio of strategies to deal with this mid-twentieth century shortage of nurses. The first was to
increase the supply of nurses by increasing the number of students admitted to nursing schools. The
second was to increase the use of less educated and trained personnel either to substitute for or to
extend the work of professional nurses. The third was to shorten the educational period for nurses to
produce not just more nurses, but nurses in a faster manner (nursing.upenn.edu). This led to the
acceptance of nursing candidates regardless of gender and color, with the goal to address the rising
need in healthcare, restore the numbers of nurses that could accommodate patients from home and in
healthcare setting, and the increased demand of nurses in the U.S.

Takeaway

All over these years, nursing profession adapted to changes, caused by an increasing demand of nurses.
From Florence Nightingale with her ideal of women-exclusive nursing, to the acceptance of men in
nursing profession, and to the acceptance of diverse cultures, African-American culture, the nursing
profession adapted, which lead to the increase in diversity of ethnicity and gender, creating a nursing
profession which can tend to the varying culture of individuals seeking healthcare.

References:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ajc.com/news/racism-against-black-nurses-historic-problem-
that-still-exists-today/WXgpiNAYHIuIKnoZRdZnxI/%3foutputType=amp

https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/workforce-issues/where-did-all-the-nurses-go/

https://globalhealtheducation.com/article/recent-changes-nursing-practice-education

https://www.soliant.com/resources/nursing/when-did-nursing-begin/

https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/research-and-innovation/focus-a-brief-history-of-men-in-nursing-
06-03-2019/