Who Nurses Really Are: Part 2 of an Education Do-Over

We, the nurses, take accountability. We really do. There is no one to point fingers at, no other professional colleagues to resent or blame. As Jenni Middleton, Editor of the Nursing Times, recently stated, "In many ways, the public perception of nursing is still bedpans and bandages... No one will articulate how the profession has changed unless nurses do." And so we want to acknowledge that somewhere along the line, amidst the tremendous shifts and vast restructuring of healthcare delivery, we have left you, the public, with an outdated perception of us, your nurses. We acknowledge and own it. Now it is time to fix it. This offering is just one step of many we are taking to recalibrate your understanding of nurses to the reality of who we really are. Who are nurses in roughly 1000 words? Impossible. But I will do my best. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the philosopher and foundress of modern day nursing, was an eminent statistician, public health leader, and social justice advocate for improved health outcomes. If that weren't enough, she made innumerable contributions to education, research, policy, journalism, and environmental activism. According to the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, she was the most influential woman in Victorian Britain after Queen Victoria, publishing more than 200 books, reports, and pamphlets on hospital organization and planning, inspiring the creation of the International Red Cross, and receiving Britain's Order of Merit in 1907, the...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news