Nursing training
Nursing has evolved from primary care to a full profession which requires advanced education and training. Nurses can specialize in a specific area of care, such as pediatrics, oncology, community health, or critical care (Price & Reichert, 2017). Besides, nurses have an opportunity to seek graduate studies, advance their careers and work in different healthcare settings.
The history of the events and personalities who focused on nursing practice, education, and roles is intertwined with contemporary nursing. Florence Nightingale is considered the mother of modern nursing, nursing education, and nursing theories (Shetty, 2016). During the Crimean War, Nightingale, with the help of other women nurses, provided primary nursing care to the injured British patients. After the war, she established nursing schools for women and focused on necessary nursing skills, patient observation, and organized hospitals.
Nursing training schools became more formalized after Nightingale’s first nursing school, and the United States opened up nursing schools, which rapidly increased in the 20th century. Also, Nightingale developed the environmental theory, which identified that a patient’s environment influenced their recovery process (Whelan, n.d.). Through her ideas, many nurse researchers have managed to come up with nursing theories such as Virginia Henderson and Jean Watson. The pioneers of modern nursing education in the US are Mary Adelaide Nutting, Isabel Hampton Robb, and Lavinia Lloyd Dock.
In the 1890s, the American Nursing Association was established in the US to bring together nurses. Over the years, professional nursing organizations have been developed in the US and are the right platforms on highlighting the changing roles of nursing (Whelan, n.d.). Besides, the development of hospitals resulted in the diversification of nursing. Nurses could offer care at hospitals and other primary healthcare facilities. The practice is responsible for the provision of contemporary nursing in schools, prisons, palliative homes, and hospices.