Period of Educated Nursing

Period of educated nursing began on June 15, 1860 when the Florence

Nightingale School of Nursing opened at St. Thomas Hospital in London (St. Thomas

Hospital School of Nursing). The development of nursing during this period was strongly

influenced by trends resulting from wars, from an arousal of social consciousness, from

the emancipation of women and from the increased educational opportunities offered to

women.

Nursing Education

Nursing education is controlled from within the profession through the state

boards of nursing and traditional accrediting bodies. The traditional focus of nursing

education was to teach the knowledge and skills that would enable a nurse to practice in

the hospital setting. However, as nursing responds to new scientific knowledge and

technological, cultural, political, and socioeconomic changes in society, nursing

education curricula are continually revised to meet the needs of nurses working in the

changing environment. Nursing curricula now have a greater focus on critical thinking

and the application of nursing and supporting knowledge o health promotion, health

maintenance, and health restoration as provided in both community and hospital

settings.

Types of Educational Programs

1. Licensed Practical (Vocational) Nursing Programs – these programs usually

last 9 or 12 months and provide both classroom and clinical experiences. At

the end of the program, graduate takes NCLEX-PN to obtain a license as a

practical or vocational nurse.

2. Registered Nursing Programs – currently, three major educational routes lead

to PN licensure: diploma programs, degree programs and baccalaureate

degree programs

3. Graduate Nursing Education Program – Master’s Programs and Doctoral

Programs

4. Continuing Education Program – refers to formalized experiences designed

to enlarge the knowledge or skills of practitioners.

5. In Service Education Program – it is designed to upgrade the knowledge and

skills of employees.

Facts about Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence, Italy whose parents

are William Edward Nightingale and Frances (“Fanny”) Nightingale. She was named

after her birth place, Florence, Italy.

Florence Nightingale was born into a rich, upper-class, well-connected British

family at the Villa Colombaia, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The Nightingales

were well educated, affluent, aristocratic Victorian family. They maintained residence in

Debyshire (Lea Hurst was their original home) and in Hampshire (Embly Park).

As a child, Florence was very close to her father, who, without a son, treated her

as his friend and companion. He took responsibility for her education and taught her

Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, history, philosophy and mathematics. Her father

was a Unitarian and was involved in the anti-slavery movement. During her

adolescence, she participated in the Victorian aristocratic activities and social events.

In 1837, inspired by what she took as a Christian divine calling. Nightingale wrote

about her calling in her diary; she wrote, “God spoke to me and called me to His

service.” Her calling was unclear to her for sometime. After she understood that she

was called to become a nurse. Florence announced her decision to enter nursing in

1845, despite the intense anger and distress of her family, particularly her mother. In

this, she rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to

become a wife and mother. In those days, nursing had a poor reputation, being

performed mostly by poorer women, "hangers-on" who followed the armies. Nightingale

worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, in spite of opposition

from her family and the restrictive societal code for affluent young English women.

Florence's desire to have a career in medicine was reinforced when she met

Elizabeth Blackwell at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Blackwell was the first

woman to qualify as a doctor in the United States. Blackwell, who had to overcome

considerable prejudice to achieve her ambition, encouraged her to keep trying and in

1851 Florence's father gave her permission to train as a nurse.

In 1851, she was finally able to complete her training at Kaiserworth, Germany, a

Protestant religious community with a hospital facility. And she was declared as a nurse.

Her education was rounded out by a continental tour. She was not contented with the

social custom imposed upon her as a Victorian Lady, she developed her self-appointed

goal: “To change the profile of nursing”.

As she returned to England, she started to examine the hospital facilities,

reformatories and charitable institutions when she returned to England. She compiled

notes of her visits to hospitals, her observation of the sanitary facilities, and social

problems of the places she visited. Only two (2) years after completing her training (in

1853), she became the Superintendent of the Hospital for Invalid Gentle women in

London.

During the Crimean War, Nightingale received a request from Sidney Herbert (a

family friend & a Secretary of War) to go to Scutari, Turkey to provide trained nurses to

care for wounded soldiers. She arrived in November of 1854. To achieve her mission of

providing nursing care, she needed to address the environmental problems that existed,

including the lack of sanitation and the presents of filth (few chamber pots, contaminated

water, contaminated sheets and blankets, and overflowing cesspools). In addition, the

soldiers were faced with exposure, frost bite, lice infestations, and other opportunistic

diseases during their recovery from battle wounds. She noted the need for preventive

medicine and good nursing.

During the Crimean campaign, Florence Nightingale gained the nickname "The

Lady with the Lamp" She is a ‘ministering angel’ in these hospitals, and as her slender

form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at

the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and

darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed

alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.

Following the war, Florence Nightingale returned to England on 1857 to great

accolades, particularly from the royal family (Queen Victoria) and the soldiers who had

served in the Crimean war.

She was awarded funds in recognition of her work, which she used to establish

teaching institution for nurses at St. Thomas Hospital (Florence Nightingale School of

Nursing & Midwifery) and King’s College Hospital in London in July 9, 1860. Florence

Nightingale’s reputation as the Founder of Modern Nursing was established. She put

down her ideas into two published books: Notes on Nursing and Notes on Hospitals.

During her life, she devoted her energies to societal issues and causes in an

attempt to create social change. She concentrated on army sanitation reform, functions

of army hospitals, sanitation in India and sanitation and healthcare of the poor in

England.

Shortly after her return to England, Nightingale confined herself to her residence

citing her continued ill health (due to Crimean fever which might have been typhus or

brucellosis. In her lifetime, Nightingale’s work was recognized through the many awards

she received from her own country and many other countries. She was able to work in

her eighties and died peacefully in her sleep on August 13, 1910 at the age of 90 and

she was buried in the graveyard at St. Margaret Church in East Wellow Hampshire.

Other Important Persons, Groups, Events during Period of Educated Nursing

1. Linda Richards: First graduate nurse in the US; graduated on September 1,

1872, from the New England Hospital for Women in Boston.

2. Dr. William Halstead: Designed the first rubber gloves.

3. Caroline Hampton Robb: The first to nurse to wear rubber gloves while working

as an operating room nurse.

4. Establishment of nursing organizations; the American Nurse’s Association and

the National League for Nursing Education; contributed to the uplift of the nursing

profession.

5. Isabel Hampton Robb: he first principal of the John Hopkins Hospital School of

Nursing; the most influential in directing the development of nursing during this

period.

6. Clara Louis Maas: engaged in medical research of yellow fever during the

Spanish-American War. She died of yellow fever.

7. Development of private duty nursing, settlement house nursing, school nursing,

government service of nurses, prenatal and maternal health nursing (1900-1912).

8. Age of specialization began in the first decade of the 20th century.

9. Preparation of a standard curriculum based on educational objectives for school

of nursing (1913-1937).

10. Edith Cavell: Known as the “Mata Hari”, served the wounded soldiers during

World War I. (both English and Russian soldiers). This was why she was

suspected as a spy (“Mata Hari”). She was an English nurse. She has a

monument in Russia, as recognition to her services.