Historical Figures of Nursing
Many say that nursing is a noble career and those who are in that field of medicine say that being a nurse is very rewarding. There are some nurses that helped pave the way for the nursing field. Some of these are Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton. Both of them are influential to the history of nursing, and nursing practices.
Florence Nightingale was a nurse during the Crimean War in 1854. Nightingale was the head of over 30 nurses when they all arrived in Scurtia. With Nightingale leading the nurses, they helped nurse soldiers back to health from the plague and cholera. The conditions where they were at were horrible and part of the cause of why so many soldiers became sick after going into battle. She returned to England in 1856, but she still pressed on in her career. After having witnessed the conditions for nurses and doctors at battle sites, she advocated that nurses and doctors receive more extensive training. Her actions led to the formation of the Army Medical College, the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses. Also, attached to Florence Nightingale’s name is the Florence Nightingale Syndrome. This refers to when nurses or doctors develop feelings for their patients. There is no record of Nightingale ever having romantic feelings or relations to any of her patients, but the syndrome is resembled by the way she cared for her patients, and checked on them during the night, which had never been done before.
Clara Barton is considered to be the true pioneer of American history because of her humanitarianism. In 1861, Barton was a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. and the first federal recruits for the civil war had come into the city. She believed there was a high demand for service to these soldiers. Many of them were already wounded, or hungry. Barton began helping the soldiers by bringing them supplies. She quickly realized that these soldiers needed food, shelter, medical care, and supplies and began volunteer her services behind the scenes of the battlefields at the hospitals. Barton became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her medical services during the war. In 1869, she traveled to Europe and discovered the Red Cross while she was in Geneva, Switzerland. When she returned to America, she kept in touch with the head of the Red Cross in Geneva, and together they were able to establish the American Red Cross in 1881. Read more