According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 3 million registered
nurses (RN) are employed in a variety of capacities in hospital
environments . RN’s also work in physician offices, home healthcare
services, schools, or serve in the military. Addiction nurses,
cardiovascular nurses, perioperative nurses, critical care nurses,
genetics nurses, neonatology nurses, public health nurses and
rehabilitation nurses are just a sample of the diversity in nursing
practice. The nursing profession is embedded in every part of modern
life; in schools, health care centers, hospitals, nursing homes, and the
military.
The fundamental tenet of compassion and respect for
the inherent dignity, worth and uniqueness of every patient historically
holds true to the modern-day nursing profession. The largest nursing
advocacy group in the U.S., the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code
of Ethics includes among others compassion and advocacy for all
patients, personal integrity, a focus on an optimized and safe working
environment as it pertains to providing quality care, collaboration with
other healthcare professionals and responsibility for articulating
nursing values and maintaining the integrity of the profession and its
practice.
Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale upheld these
modern ethics in her own way as she blazed a path for modern nursing.
Self-taught and trained, despite oppressive social norms limiting
working women during her time, she gained notoriety managing a cadre of
nurses during the Crimean War. Tending to wounded soldiers, the work of
Nightingale and her team brought to light nursing as a legitimate and
important profession. Her advocacy and work training nurses,
establishing the first nursing school, and her important work utilizing
statistical data on mortality to inform her practice, further cemented
and helped legitimize nursing as a profession.
These pioneering
tenants continue to be championed by nurses across the world.
Established in 1893, the Nightingale Pledge (a modified version of the
Hippocratic Oath) taken at the completion of nursing school, continues
to be a cornerstone for nurses. Nightingale’s work opened the doors to
many nursing pioneers including Clara Barton, founder of the American
Red Cross whose passion to provide care to all humanity irrespective of
race or ethnicity brought awareness and increased attention to disaster
relief and humanitarian work.
Other notable nurses include
Dorothea Dix who advocated for patients with mental illness and Margaret
Sanger who advocated for the rights of women’s health and women’s right
to birth control. She also wrote extensively about education and birth
control and was instrumental in the establishment of the International
Federation of Planned Parenthood. Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first black
woman RN who was initially denied entrance into the American Nurses
Association, established her own nursing organization serving women of
color in the field of nursing.
Other notable women of color in
nursing include Susie King Taylor who was the first African-American
woman U.S. Army nurse serving in the Civil War. Mabel Staupers fought
hard to integrate black nurses into the nursing profession in the U.S.,
at a time where medical aid was desperately needed during the Great
Depression and World War II . Sarah Emma Edmondson lived out her dream
to be a nurse dressed as a man in order to practice. She served in the
Union Army as Private Franklin Flint Thompson, a male nurse and a spy
in the Civil War. She crossed enemy lines as a black man tinting her
skin with silver nitrate . Sarah Emma Edmondson a.k.a. Private Frank
Thompson was a true hero and champion of nursing.
Other
pioneering nurses include Diane Evans a Vietnam War nurse. Diane
Carlson Evans fought for the honor of the women who bravely battled side
by side with male soldiers in Vietnam War era. It took 7 years of
lobbying before Congress, convincing legislators to recognize the
immense value of 11,000 military women to Vietnam and the 265,000 others
in service during the war. Her efforts led to the dedication of the
Vietnam Women's Memorial in 1993.
Though nursing is largely
dominated by women men have made inroads into the profession with its
own set of pioneers. Men make up about 6 percent of the 2.9 million RNs
working in the U.S. Male nursing’s most famous pioneer Walt Whitman,
the acclaimed poet, served as a volunteer nurse during the American
Civil War and in crowded hospital wards in Washington.
Aspiring
nursing student Joe Hogan made history when he sued the Mississippi
University for Women for denying Hogan admission because of his gender.
Hogan was already a registered nurse who was working full time at Golden
Triangle Regional Hospital in Columbus, Mississippi, but wanted to earn
his bachelor's degree in nursing from the all-women's institution
because it was the only local college offering this degree. Joe Hogan
won his landmark case, and it forever banned gender discrimination at
publicly funded schools for nursing.
Modern day nursing pioneers
that exemplify the championing spirit of their predecessors include
Karen Daley who led the battle that led to the passage of the
Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act of 2000. A veteran nurse, Daley
acquired both Hepatitis C and HIV via a needlestick during her practice
in an emergency room setting. Nurses Lisa Black and Lynda Arnold who
both acquired HIV and Hepatitis C via needlesticks were part of this
cadre of nurses who through their experiences were motivated to create
change.
Other notable nurses within needlestick safety and
prevention and pivotal in the passage of the landmark legislation
include Mary Foley who was a nurse during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the
late 80’s early 90’s.
These nursing leaders represented all
healthcare workers, not just nurses who had been harmed by sharps
injury. The landmark legislation calls for enhanced engineering to
create safer conditions for nurses requiring employers to identify,
evaluate, and implement safer devices. The Act also mandated additional
requirements for maintaining a sharps injury log and for the involvement
of non-managerial healthcare workers in evaluating and choosing
devices.
Sponsored by the American Nurses Association, this
vital profession is acknowledged through National Nurses Week from May
6th-May 12th by the American Nurses Association. Additionally, and in
parallel National Hospital Week takes place during the same week.
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