The aim of this essay is to discuss how the social perception of nurses has changed throughout history leading up to the present day. This will include how Florence Nightingale challenged the social class that the nursing profession was put into by society, alongside the effects that social media and news reports have had on the way people view nursing as a whole. Carrying on from news reports and social media, this essay will read into the Francis Report, this being one of the main reports having the biggest impact on how nurses are regarded by the general public. Another topic that will be drawn upon is the changes and progression in nursing legislation and the effect it has had on the standard of care given by nurses. Due to her upper class status and superior education, Florence Nightingale changed the social perception that nursing, as a profession, was for those of low social class. Nightingale challenged these views and built a team of efficient nurses to care for the soldiers fighting in the Crimean war. Florence managed to reduce death rates from 42% down to 2% by establishing sanitary reform (nwhm.org, 2016). As stated in Contemporary Nursing …show more content…
These changes in legislation run alongside the new set of values known as ‘The 6 C’s’ bought out by NHS England, nurses as well as all other NHS employees are expected to abide by these. The 6 C’s were put in place to ensure that anyone providing care within the NHS did so with the following aspects, Courage, Care, Competence, Compassion, Commitment and good Communication. This was in attempt to ensure that the quality of care given by the NHS was of a high and professional standard; which in turn would improve the National Health Service’s current reputation. It is thought that this would be achieved by strictly abiding by these values (Stephenson,
Registered nurses work to contribute good health and prevent illness. They also treat patients and help go through there rehabilitation and also give support and advice to patients family. Registered nurses are general-duty nurses who focus in the achievement of caring for their patients. They are under the supervision of a doctor. As I researched this career It brought more questions to my life. It became a big interest that soon I would have an opportunity to answer my own questions obviously with the help of others.
The article I chose discusses the continual change in the roles of nurses. The article also poses a concept that nursing now is not based on caring, but medicine. “By accepting continual changes to the role of the nurse, the core function of nursing has become obscured and, despite assuming medical tasks, the occupation continues to be seen in terms of a role that is subordinate to and dependent on medicine.” (Iley 2004) Nurses are taking a more professional role, and more tasks are being delegated to assertive personnel. Therefore, with all these changes occurring, the role of the enrolled nurse is unclear. “Previously, having two levels of qualified nurse in the United Kingdom had been seen as problematic for health service managers and nurses themselves, and the ending of enrolled nurse programs in 1992 helped to solve this problem.” (2004) The study in this article gathered the characteristics of enrolled nurses and differentiated the groups converting to registered nurses, groups in the process of conversion, and groups interested or not interested in conversion. This study reveals the situation of enrolled nurses in context of continuing towards the professionalization of nursing. “The data from this study support the possibility that the role of nurses as direct caregivers is seen as a positive dimension of the work they undertake.” (2004) The findings imply that nurses need to get back to being caregivers, instead of concentrating on obtaining professional status in medicine.
Nightingale also created the International code of diseases that we still use today (Horsley, 2010). However, Nightingale had a strong passion for improving the nursing profession therefore, coming up with 13 canons that sensible and self explanatory. These 13 canons are able to be broken up into four major concepts Person, Environment, Health, and Nursing (Masters, 2015, p. 29). Nightingale believed nursed should always tend to the patient regardless if their original nurse is present and that the patient should be clean. She also believed that the patients environment shouldn’t be a place where disease can breed (Masters, 2015, p. 27). The patient should also be comfortable, fed, never left alone for long periods of time, and always in proper lighting. Nightingale believed that nursing was an art and a science that required a higher education (Masters, 2015, p. 28). She wanted the nurses to not only maintain this environment for the patients but to monitor the patient and report it (Masters, 2015, p. 27). Lastly, Nightingale believed that health was not only the absent of disease but when the patient is able to maintain a healthy life style. Nightingale improved many hospitals by designing them accordingly to her environmental
Before Nightingale, nurses were lower class citizens that were alcoholics or prostitutes with no to a little education. Florence Nightingale realized that nurses ought to have some education in caring for others and be of a higher class. In 1860, she opened the first nursing school in London that did not accept prostitutes and alcoholics. To signify Nightingale’s view of nursing, Lystra Gretter composed a Hippocratic Oath for nurses called the Nightingale pledge.
After graduating, Florence received a job in a Middlesex hospital for ailing governesses (Nash 1925). Her work ethic was very impressing that after a short time, Nightingale was moved to superintendent of the hospital. The job proved to be just as challenging as it sounded. The outbreak of disease and unsanitary conditions had Nightingale in frenzy. It would be up to her to improve unsanitary conditions and decrease the fast spread of disease.
Nightingale may have been socially awkward, much like me, but she believed that nursing was the path set by the divine for her. She believed this wholeheartedly to the point of reducing the death rate by two-thirds. A few famous quotes reflect her thoughts about nursing and how
Worldwide, nurses have developed themselves into professionals with a great deal of knowledge. Despite these developments towards professionalism, nurses are still portrayed in a misleading and inaccurate way and are not given the recognition for the skills they have acquired. The essence of nursing is not always clear and nurses still suffer from stereotypes (Hoeve,2014). A stereotype can be defined as “a cognitive representation or impression of a social group that people form by associating particular characteristics and emotions with a group” (Smith and Mackie, 2007). Of the many types of nursing, a very popular stereotype that is depicted of nurses is being doctor’s handmaiden and only performing repetitive and simple tasks (Hoeve,2014.) This public image of nursing does not match their professional images, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Nurses are strong independent individuals that play just as big a role in the hospital as due the doctors or surgeons. The problem is nurses are not depicted as professionals and the public is not aware that nursing today is very theory-based oriented and a scholarly profession. Over the last few decades, nursing gone through extensive and important
In 1849 Florence went abroad to study the European hospital system. In 1853 she became the superintendent for the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in London. In 1854 Florence raised the economic and productive aspect of women's status by volunteering to run all the nursing duties during the Crimean War. With her efforts the mortality rates of the sick and wounded soldiers was reduced. While being a nurse was her profession and what she was known for, she used statistics to achieve...
The biggest impact to the nursing profession was not recognized until the appearance of Florence Nightingale in the mid 1800’s. Nightingale impressed the medical field with her personal research in epidemiology of infection control and her principles to nursing care. In 1859 Nightingale publishes the first instruction manual for nurses named “Notes on Nursing.” Following that in 1860, the Nightingale Training School for nurses opens in England and is quickly deemed a success. Her work was impressive that it spread globally. Many nursing schools soon used her principles to develop the concept of nursing care (American Nursing: An Introduction to the Past, n.d.).
Florence Nightingale is known throughout the nursing community (Potter, Perry, Hall, & Stockert, 2017). Commonly known for founding modern nursing, Florence Nightingale developed the first theory of nursing (Potter, et al., 2017). Nightingale’s theory was for the patient’s environment, in which Nightingale encouraged nurses to manipulate (Potter, et al., 2017). She believed that nature would restore the health of a patient (Potter, et al., 2017). This would be through light, hygiene, ventilation, nutrition, and decreased noise (Potter, et al., 2017).
Florence Nightingale, named after the city of Florence, was born in Florence, Italy, on May 12, 1820. She would pursue a career in nursing and later find herself studying data of the soldiers she so cringingly looking after. Born into the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale took the lead role amongst her and her colleges to improve the inhabitable hospitals all across Great Britten; reduce the death count by more than two-thirds. Her love for helping people didn’t go unnoticed and would continue to increase throughout her life. In 1860 she opened up the St. Tomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses before passing August 13, 1910 in London. Her willingness to care for her patients was never overlooked and wound establishing
At the time, nurses were not respected, and the job was frowned upon. They were also not as properly trained as they are today. Hospital conditions were very poor, especially during war. The medicine and food they were given was not good. The soldiers had to sleep in dirty, overcrowded rooms, often without blankets. Because of these conditions, it was more common for men to die from diseases like typhus and cholera than from their injuries (“Florence Nightingale Why”). Florence Nightingale made many huge contributions to improve these problems. Her first nursing job was at Harley Street hospital in the early 1850’s. She did so well, her employer promoted her to superintendent. At the same time she was working this job, she was also volunteering at a Middlesex hospital. At this hospital, she helped tackle a cholera outbreak and fix unsanitary conditions that lead to the rapid spread of the disease. Improving hygiene practices to lower the death rate at the hospital significantly in the process became Florence Nightingale’s mission. Then, in October 1853, the Crimean War broke out. There were no female nurses stationed at the hospitals in Crimea (“Florence Nightingale.” Biography”). Nightingale organized thirty-eight nurses to tend to the sick and injured soldiers (“Florence Nightingale Biography.”). When they arrived at the hospital, they found it in
Nursing is constantly changing, improving, and becoming more complex with each year that goes by. It is for this reason that there is an incredible distance between what nursing was then and what nursing is now. Nightingale lived from 1810-1910, with her improvements and contributions the Lady with the Lamp became a turning point of nursing at that time, which led to the many improvements which gained her another name as the Mother of Modern Nursing. If Florence Nightingale were to experience Nursing as it was today in 2017 she would be astonished by the changes in ethical, legal, professional, and knowledge of the old ways.
The public’s perception of nursing today differs from that of the nineteenth and twentieth century. During the 1800’s nursing was not seen as a profession, but a role that was undertaken by lower class women in society. (Klainberg & Dirschel, 2010). The skill of looking after the ill and child bearers was considered that of low status. Nursing was displayed throughout the current times media outlets, most of which were novels, as being poor, dirty, alcoholics as seen in Charles Dickinson novel Martin Chuzzlewit. It wasn’t until the work of Florence Nightingale in the mid 1800’s that the public’s perception of what nurse was changed. (Daly, Speedy, & Jackson, 2014) Until than the majority of nurses had been prostitutes and the poor due to low statues, so when Nightingale, a woman of the high class Victorian Era became a nurse this was a new idea. She worked within the war as a nurse, taking detailed ...
Florence Nightingale, also known as The Lady of the Lamp, is a nurse figure of admiration to men and women in the seventeenth century. Florence Nightingale was pushed by her family at a young age to focus on her studies, which would inspire her love of nursing later on. Throughout Florence's career and nursing experiences, she accomplished many great advancements. Some of these accomplishments occurred during the Crimean War, and she is remembered by many of these advancements, even today. Florence Nightingale's early years of life and her career have paved the way for nurses today. Florence Nightingale’s life experiences greatly impacted her future and provided her with opportunities to accomplish many great advancements in the field of nursing;