Nursing started as a profession in the middle of the 19th century, with most historians crediting Florence Nightingale as the person who founded nursing (Foth et al., 2018). Florence Nightingale was a well-educated British woman who pursued nursing to challenge social norms. Society initially considered nursing a feminine profession, and the patriarchal nature of the society in those times contributed to the negative attitudes towards nurses. The perception would change during the Civil War as nurses’ care for soldiers wounded in the war significantly changed the public perception (Wierzbicka, 2019).
A critical event that has shaped nursing education today is the founding of multiple nursing schools in 1873. A few years later, in 1888, men began to venture into the nursing profession, which was until then considered a feminine profession. In a historical event, Darius Mills would pioneer the first formal nursing program designed specifically for men (Foth et al., 2018). Some of the most prominent nursing schools, such as the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing, were founded in that year. Alongside Florence Nightingale, there have been many other key figures in the history of nursing, and the following are just a few of them.
Mary Mahoney was the first African American woman and an inspiration to many women of color to join the profession (Wierzbicka, 2019). Clara Burton left her career as a teacher to serve in the Civil War. Dorothea Dix was a mental health advocate and is credited with founding the first mental asylum. Virginia Avenel Henderson is credited with influencing the advancement of nursing education. She was instrumental in advancing caregiver research, practice, and education to what it is today.
References
Foth, T., Lange, J.B., & Smith, K. (2018). Nursing history as philosophy—towards a critical history of nursing. Nursing Philosophy.
Wierzbicka, I. B. (2019). Nursing-history and development of the profession.Journal of Education, Health and Sport, 9(9), 121-129.