Nursing History

Understanding Issues Facing Health Care Professionals

Nurses play an extremely vital role in the world of healthcare and make up the backbone of the health care system. Florence Nightingale is noted as one of the first trained nurses. She trained at the first organized school of nursing, founded in Kaiserworth, Germany in 1846. Nursing has evolved exponentially since then. Technology changed the face of medicine and increased the workload for nurses. Currently, the United States is experiencing an extreme shortage of nurses and many nurses are "burned out" by the high demands of the profession. However, consumers expect well-trained and experienced nurses providing care in hospitals, clinics, and home health care facilities. Regulatory agencies provide oversight of the nursing profession as future trends such as nursing shortages, advanced technologies, and the "graying of American" give birth to new challenges in the profession of nursing.

History of Nursing

Nursing is the profession of providing care for sick or infirm. Before nurses, the care of the ill fell to family members, friends, or religious orders. "In ancient times, when medical lore was associated with good or evil spirits, the sick were usually cared for in temples and houses of worship. In the early Christian era nursing duties were undertaken by certain women in the church, their services being extended to patients in their homes" (Anwsers.com. par. 6). "Nursing care based on non-structured learning continued for centuries-sometimes with admirable resultsÐ'..." (Sarkis & Conners, 1985, p. 121).

Then "In the 17th cent., St. Vincent de Paul began to encourage women to undertake some form of training for their work, but there was no real hospital training school for nurses until one was established in Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1846" (Anwsers.com. par. 7). Florence Nightingale established "Ð'...the Nightingale Training School for NursesÐ'...in 1860" (Sarkis & Conners, 1985, p. 122). It is here that nursing as a profession began and evolved to its current state.

Current Health Care Issues Facing Nursing

Nursing is a demanding profession. Nurses are bombarded daily with many tasks and responsibilities. There are two current health care issues facing the profession of nursing todayÐ'--a misdistribution of nurses across the United States and burnout, both noted as causes for a nursing shortage.

There is a misdistribution of nurses across the United States and there are at least two apparent reasons for thisÐ'--geographic immobility and a lack of incentives for rural and inner-city hospitals (Williams & Torrens, 2005). In 1991, the RN to population ratio in the state of New York was 823 to 100,000; however, Arkansas' ratio was only 506 to 100,000. Many nurses are married with children and are second wage earners for their families; they are not able or not willing to move to locations where nurses are in need. Also, rural and inner-city hospitals often do not offer sufficient salaries, benefits and flexible working hours to lure nurses to move to these areas (Williams & Torrens, 2005). This misdistribution causes nursing shortages.

Another issue facing nurses today is burnout. Nursing is a very demanding and stressful profession. Burnout is described by Annette T. Vallano in Your Career in Nursing, as a form of mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and interpersonal exhaustion that is not easily restored by sleep or rest. Nurses experience burnout when they are overwhelmed and unable to cope with the day-to-day stress of their work over long periods of time. Burnout may also be a reason that many nurses have decided to work only part-time, thus burnout may be a contributing factor to the nursing-shortage problem. Burnout can turn a typically enthusiastic caregiver to one who struggles through each working day going through the motions. Vallano has termed victims of burnout as the "walking wounded". One cause for the high rate of burnout amongst nurses is not only the stress of responsibilities and a fast-paced work environment, but also because nurses are so overwhelmed with the care of others, they often can't simultaneously care for themselves (Vallano, 2002). Kelli S. Dunham also has an explanation for the cause of burnout in nurses in How to Survive and Maybe Even Love Your Life as a Nurse, nurses are involved in the real muck and sometimes ugliness of life in a way few other professions areÐ'--dealing with victims of violence, domestic abuse, child abuse and neglect, rape and poverty. Burnout may also be caused simply by the emotional stress and feelings of failure due to the nature of the job (Dunham, 2005). Not every patient will be a success story, especially for nurses working in certain fields such as trauma or oncologyÐ'--it's a huge emotional toll.

Consumer's Perception and Expectation of Nursing

Nursing today is practiced in various settings and is a vital part of the health care system. Nurses are present in a hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, out-patient centers, clinics, and homes. A consumer perceives these professionals as trained individuals that work to contribute to a patient's maintenance and health issues.

Nursing is seen as an ever expanding field. The degrees of nursing keep multiplying. Consumers are aware that is possible to be treated by an associate, bachelor, or master level nurse. A patient anticipates that the nurse will be able to implement the correct plan of action tailored to