NR 393 Week 6 Discussion: Reflection on 19th and 20th Century Nursing
NR 393 Week 6 Discussion: Reflection on 19th and 20th Century Nursing
The 19th and 20th century introduced several changes in healthcare to accelerate the profession of nursing. Nurses found themselves in new roles in the midst of war. Advances in practice with medications, equipment, and research also influenced the role of the nurse. It was a time when females were entering society as a workforce, no longer restricted to the boundaries of activities occurring in their home. Socioeconomic influences also helped shape nursing in the early 20th century. There are several examples of changes in this week’s reading. Class, as you consider this week’s topic, reflect on the nurses in the 19th and 20th centuries who will best guide your current nursing practice. Provide an explanation of why you made this choice.
I thought that Barton was a great example. Working in the ER and the Covid unit of the ER during this pandemic almost seems like war like conditions. We have limited beds for the covid patients in the ER, we have to decide who needs seen first, who can sit and wait in the covid waiting area. It is hard to be a nurse in any areas of nursing right now, burnout is real. But the quote you choose for this time is right on point to be encouraging for this pandemic times. During this time of the pandemic hopefully we will learn better practices and modern treatments for these patients to decrease stress on the patients and the staff caring for patients.
Out of all of these nurses, I have to pick Clara Barton given my current situation to reflect upon. I lost my apartment due to a fire. Thanks to Clara Barton creating the American Red Cross, I was able to use some of their services almost immediately.
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The Red Cross is a huge organization. I had a fire which displaced my family. I was provided a two night hotel stay, a debit card for immediate use for food and clothing if needed, a mental health counselor who checked on each of my family members, a nurse who would help with replacing medications and medical equipment. They also had a case worker who sent links for housing opportunities. Due to this situation and how quickly they provided assistance, I would like to give my time to the Red Cross as well as a volunteer nurse.
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The founding of the Red Cross has helped my family in our time of disaster/need.
I also want to reflect on Mary Mahoney as she brought diversity to nursing. I cannot imagine anything other than diversity in health care. I have always enjoyed befriending and working with people who bring variety in experience and culture to the table. I thank her for her resilience back when she was told she was too dark skinned to help wounded soldiers alongside Florence and made it work anyway! Had she not been so bold, I wonder what nursing would look like today.
Nurse Richards also makes me thankful for including men and women alike in nursing – everyone is needed in nursing and discrimination is unhelpful and disgusting.
I am so sorry to hear about your apartment fire and how it impacted you and your family. That is great that you want to give back and volunteer with the American Red Cross. I didn’t realize all the things American Red Cross does for the community. Diversity is big in nursing and it’s great to see people with different cultural backgrounds going into nursing and even learning different religions from patients. It’s also great to see more men going into nursing, back in Nightingales time nurses were only thought to be women and now we have many men that go into nursing. Great post!
The nurses from the 20th century will best guide my professional practices because their moral behavior was satisfactory to both the patients and the management. Nurses in the 19th century were lower class level women who were not trained and gave themselves the head nurses’ position and put themselves in charge of the critical patients (Helmstadter, 2008). They lacked moral character, such as being kind to the patients. The nurses are paid a full salary without work experience, but they involved themselves with some less critical nursing care such as making beds, cleaning the weaker patients, and helping them. The nurses had to find and pay substitutes by themselves because they had no paid time off.
The 20th-century nurses were well trained, came from the middle class, were highly disciplined, made sure they had well attended to their patients, did their work with passion, kind to their patients, humbly communicated them, and used the correct language to their patients (Amadeo, 2008). They have trained matrons who are maintaining adequate discipline and see them providing exemplary patient care. Nurses in the 20th century are kind where they are mindful. They are in the position to listen to their patients, encourage them, be respectful even when faced with demanding patients, and deal with patients’ fearful or anxious feelings.
Nurses should develop self-awareness, which is beneficial to their professional level and personal. Mindful awareness includes their unsolved emotional stress, mainly through conscious awareness. However, many nurses have difficulty dealing with dying patients, witnessing patients suffer, and their families. It will improve the relationship between the patients and nurses.
References
Amadeo, C. A. (2008). A correlational study of servant leadership and registered nurse job satisfaction in acute health-care settings (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).
Helmstadter, C. (2008). Authority and leadership: The evolution of nursing management in 19th century teaching hospitals. (n.d.). Journal of Nursing Management 16, 4–13
The nurses from the 20th century will best guide my professional practices because their moral behavior was satisfactory to both the patients and the management. Nurses in the 19th century were lower class level women who were not trained and gave themselves the head nurses’ position and put themselves in charge of the critical patients (Helmstadter, 2008). They lacked moral character, such as being kind to the patients. The nurses are paid a full salary without work experience, but they involved themselves with some less critical nursing care such as making beds, cleaning the weaker patients, and helping them. The nurses had to find and pay substitutes by themselves because they had no paid time off.
The 20th-century nurses were well trained, came from the middle class, were highly disciplined, made sure they had well attended to their patients, did their work with passion, kind to their patients, humbly communicated them, and used the correct language to their patients (Amadeo, 2008). They have trained matrons who are maintaining adequate discipline and see them providing exemplary patient care. Nurses in the 20th century are kind where they are mindful. They are in the position to listen to their patients, encourage them, be respectful even when faced with demanding patients, and deal with patients’ fearful or anxious feelings.
Nurses should develop self-awareness, which is beneficial to their professional level and personal. Mindful awareness includes their unsolved emotional stress, mainly through conscious awareness. However, many nurses have difficulty dealing with dying patients, witnessing patients suffer, and their families. It will improve the relationship between the patients and nurses.
References
Amadeo, C. A. (2008). A correlational study of servant leadership and registered nurse job satisfaction in acute health-care settings (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).
Helmstadter, C. (2008). Authority and leadership: The evolution of nursing management in 19th century teaching hospitals. (n.d.). Journal of Nursing Management 16, 4–13
During the 19th century, there was a lot of great works from pioneer nurses who had limited education but did an extraordinary job of caring for the patients. One of them is Mary Ann Bickerdyke who was an untrained nurse who worked for the Union Army in the Civil War. The Superb provision of care of the soldiers earned her the title of “Mother” (Judd, 2015). After her unsuccessful venture into the higher institutions in Oberlin, Bickerdyke decided to become a nurse. In 1837 she assisted doctors in the cholera outbreak in Cincinnati, Ohio (Ohiohistorycentral.org). She established a hospital for Union soldiers in Cairo, Illinois, during the American Civil War & thereafter she established three hundred more union hospitals to help wounded & sick soldiers. Upon her arrival at the base, she was so appalled by the conditions that she refused to leave. Without official permission, she began to clean wounds, improve sanitation & cook nutritious meals (Nursing-theory.org). Due to her resilience, she was appointed matron of the hospital by General Grant & in 1862 a sanitary field agent (Nursing-theory.org). As a matron, she oversaw not only nursing but also cooking, cleaning & securing supplies. She was so dedicated that she will use a lantern to search for wounded soldiers after nightfall. She was an advocate for the soldiers by talking about the struggles & their difficulty they face health-wise, thereby soliciting funds from the civilian population. She did not only advocate for the soldiers, but the nurses as well by helping over three hundred female nurses secure their pension. She also helped the veterans begin new lives, obtained free transportation for them & continue to advocate for them (Ohiohistorycentral.org). She stayed on as an army nurse until she retired in March 1866.
The nursing care that we provide to our patients must fit with or have beneficial meaning and health outcomes for people of different or similar cultural backgrounds which made realize the importance of proving holistic care to the promotion of wellbeing or health of the patient, and according to the World Health Organization, health is defined as the complete state of physical, mental, social well-being and not merely an absence of a disease or an infirmity. Providing culturally sensitive care is essential in ensuring that we are proving holistic care and at the same time it is one way of showing respect to our patients.
In today’s nursing, Due to the education and improvement in the health care system nursing is seriously moving forward. Nursing has improved greatly by nurses doing more for patients and going far and beyond to advocate for patients and render holistic care to patients. This practice has been guiding my day-to-day practice in the nursing profession. I go far and beyond for my client, work together with the health care team to render care to patients. This has been helping my day to day activities by doing all I can in my capacity to advocate for the wellbeing of my patient and making the patient comfortable. All these practices and values are still carried on till today.
References:
Judd, D., & Sitzman, K. (2014). A History of American nursing: Trends and eras (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett
http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Mary_Ann_Bickerdyke. Retrieved March, 2017
