Florida National University

NUR-3805

Prof. Lourdes Castaneda MSN, RN, CNML

September 3rd , 2018

1. After reading Chapter 1,  do you think Florence Nightingale is relevant in the 21st century to the nursing profession?  Why or why not?

Yes, I strongly think that Florence Nightingale was one of the most relevant and influential person in the 21st Century to the Nursing Profession. This leader was born in May 12th, 1820 and was name Florence as in her namesake, Florence, Italy. She was part of a wealthy English family. Nightingale always thought that God had called her to be a nurse and she lived her entire life thinking of the difficult situation of the poor and suffering people. This women was identified as a true “Angel of Mercy”.

Florence Nightingale, helped to define nursing practice by suggesting that nurses did not need to know all about the disease process like the medical field; she had the conviction that all that nurses needed to know was how to care for a patient through the environment, helping the patient deal with symptoms and changes in function related to illness. “The Lady of the Lamp”, as she is most known, helped, participated, and pursued the reform of military health care in the Crimean War as well as changing forever the way society views the poor and vulnerable individuals.

There are a lot to say and write about how this woman change the history of nursing starting by creating a respect for this career, which was not respected long time ago and this is why Florence Nightingale was named the pioneer of Modern Nursing. I would like to add that the first training schools for nursing in the United States were modeled after the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas in London, in which I would like to mention Bellevue Training School in New York City.

2. What do you think would be the response of historical nursing leaders such as Florence Nightingale, Lillian Wald, and Mary Breckenridge if they could see what the profession of nursing looks like today?

The Nursing Profession has evolved so much nowadays and yet is expected to expand even more in the future that in my opinion these great and respected women will be thrilled and happy of witness what this profession had become. There is a wide field in the health care system for the Nursing Profession in the present for example community nurses, which not only promote and protect the population, but also teach the community on how to prevent certain illnesses. These women have contributed, and helped, so much to this career that I think they will be satisfied of their contribution. I think they will still be willing to help and share their experiences with the new nurses.

In the future more leaders will be needed since this profession continue to evolve day by day, and they were here they response will be to guide and prepare these leaders to become a well-respected nurses supervisors. A leader like them should be committed to their work, coworkers, patients, and family. In addition to committed also a leaders should be passionate, compassionate, innovative, caring, resilient, and moreover; should be inspirational.

Lillian Wald that in order to demonstrate her commitment to cultural diversity hiring an African American Nurse, would be pleased to witness how the cultural diversity has evolve and how now nurses understand more about other people’s customs and that everybody has the same rights. Mary Breckenridge more known as the “Founder of American Nurse-Midwifery”, and being the woman that successfully accomplished the lowering the maternal mortality rate, will be more than delighted to witness all that had been done in the present to continued lowering this number. All that the individuals that work for this great profession had been able to accomplished with the pass of the years had been primarily because of the legacy of these great women, nurses, and leaders.

References

Masters, K. (2015). Role development in professional nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Nightingale, F. (1992). Notes on nursing: What it is, and what it is not. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Bernal, H. (1993). A model for delivering culture‐relevant care in the community. Public Health Nursing, 10(4), 228-232.

Breckinridge, M. (1927). The nurse-midwife—a pioneer. American Journal of Public Health, 17(11), 1147-1151.

Dock, L. L. (1902). School-nurse experiment in New York. The American Journal of Nursing, 3(2), 108-110.