Nursing
...nursing refers to the functions and duties carried out by persons who have had formal education and training in the art and science of nursing. Professional nurses combine many different disciplines, including aspects of biology and psychology, to promote the restoration and maintenance of health in their clients. There are two major categories of nurses: licensed practical nurses and registered nurses. In recent years, efforts have been made by several professional nursing organizations to designate two categories of registered nurses, technical and professional, that would reflect the educational preparation of the individual.
Class of 1896 The six women that composed the first graduating class of the Columbia University School of Nursing entered their profession at a time when there was little classroom preparation for nurses. Modeled after European programs, training was based on apprenticeship. Students provided low-cost labor to hospitals and gained invaluable practical experience. Enrollment in increasingly university-based, rather than hospital-based, nursing programs rose after the turn of the century as the need for nurses in both civilian and military life became more and more apparent.
Formal nursing education in the United States had its antecedents in Europe and England. One of the first formal training programs for nurses was begun in 1836 in Kaiserswerth, Germany, by Pastor Theodor Fliedner for the Order of Deaconesses. Other religious orders were also providing formalized training for nurses in Europe at that time, but Fliedner's school is noteworthy for having given the British nursing reformer Florence Nightingale her formal training. Her experience at Kaiserswerth gave her the impetus to organize nursing care on the battlefields of the Crimean War and, later, to establish a nurse training program at Saint Thomas's Hospital in London. In the...
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