We explain what nursing is and the history of the emergence of this profession. Also, famous historical nurses.
What is nursing?
Nursing is a profession that includes attention, autonomous care and collaboration of human health. Nurses are dedicated, broadly speaking, to treating potential or real health problems that a person presents.
Florence Nightingale promoted the first nursing theory approximately 150 years ago, from which new models emerged, each having a different philosophy of the way of understanding nursing and the care provided to the patient. In 1852 was the beginning of professional nursing since through the publication of the book “Nursing Notes” by Nightingale, nurses began to feel an interest in acquiring technical knowledge about their profession.
Nursing, today, is a university-level career that is dedicated to the care and attention of medical patients. There is another profession within the nursing career that performs functions that complete those of the nurse, and it is the profession of nursing care technician, more commonly called nursing assistant.
See also: Teacher
famous nurses
- Florence Nightingale She is considered the mother of modern nursing. He promoted care for the environment to provide a speedy recovery for the sick.
- Marianne Cope He opened and ran the first hospitals in North America, implementing new standards of cleanliness that influenced the development of the American hospital system.
- Dorothea Orem She was the author of the self-care deficit theory.
- Hildegard Peplau He wrote “Interpersonal Relations in Nursing” in 1952.
- Callista Roy He wrote “Introduction to Nursing: An adaptation model” in 1976.
- Jean Watson Author of philosophical healing factors in 1975 and «The theory of Human Caring» (The theory of human care).
- Martha Rogers His theory of unitary human beings states that the human being is more than the sum of its parts and that he is the owner of feelings and ideas.
- Saint John of God He was founder of the Hospitaller Order of San Juan de Dios.
Nursing history
In ancient times and contrary to the thinking of most people, the profession of nursing was practiced by men for much of history. When opening the first nursing school in India in 250 BC only men were considered “pure” enough to be able to learn the profession.
The origin of patient care and nursing practice has to do with maternal interventions who ensured the continuity of life. Feeding in the first moments of a child's life is considered the oldest care practice in an individual.
In the time of the great Greek thinkers like Socrates or Homer, it was already established that the act of cleanliness and self-care of people kept them alive and gave them a better quality of life.
Christianity was strongly linked to the practice of nursing care in monasteries through religious orders. As a consequence of the Crusades, the strong demand for hospitals promoted the creation of military orders that were dedicated exclusively to nursing among them were the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of Lazarus and the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem. The Obispo Masona Hospital (6th century) was the first Spanish hospital dedicated solely to the care of the sick.
