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A Brief History of Nursing

Innovators and milestones

from Healthcare Professional Digest

If you asked a group of people to identify the founder of nursing, most of them would say it was Florence Nightingale. But they would be only partly right. People who take care of others, along with doctors or on their own, have been around for centuries.

The first true nurses were the Sisters of Charity, an order founded in 1633 to tend to the poor in their own homes. Seven years later, the sisters assumed charge of a hospital at Angers, France. And in 1653 and 1656, they provided care for wounded soldiers on the battlefields at Sedan and Arras in France.

Almost 200 years later, in 1850, a young Florence Nightingale began her training as a nurse. A daughter of a privileged English family, Nightingale decided hers should be a life of service to others. In 1853, she visited the Sisters of Charity's mother house in Paris to learn their methods. The next year, Nightingale and 38 volunteer nurses went to Turkey to care for British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War.

While there, Nightingale was shocked by the unsanitary conditions, and she demonstrated the link between poor hygiene and the high number of deaths. She pressed for improvements that resulted in greatly reduced mortality rates among the troops. During her service in Turkey, Nightingale became known as the "Lady with the Lamp" because she always carried a lamp in her hand at night while caring for the soldiers.

At home, Nightingale worked to improve hygiene in British hospitals. Through donations to the Nightingale Fund, which she initiated, she was able to open a school of nursing in 1859. The Nightingale Lamp, often used in nurses' ceremonies, is a reminder of the lamp she carried during the Crimean War.

Florence Nightingale is generally recognized as the founder of modern nursing. Yet many nurses who came after her also made valuable contributions to the field. The following is a time line of these heroes of nursing and major milestones in nursing over the past 150 years.

Nursing History in Brief

• 1857 -- Ellen Ranyard starts the first district nursing program in London, England.

• 1861 -- The first U.S. professional nursing school opens in New York City.

• 1861 -- Linda Richards graduates from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses, becoming America's first trained nurse.

• 1861 -- Clara Barton establishes an agency to obtain and distribute medical supplies for wounded soldiers in the U.S. Civil War.

• 1862 -- Clara Barton obtains permission to provide nursing services behind battle lines, earning the title of "Angel of the Battlefield."

• 1879 -- Mary Eliza Mahoney becomes the first African-American professional nurse in the U.S.

• 1881 -- Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross.

• 1902 -- Anna Caroline Maxwell, often referred to as the "American Florence Nightingale," helps establish the Army Nurse Corps, giving nurses in the Army the rank of officer.

• 1893 -- The Nightingale Pledge is used for the first time -- during a graduation at the old Harper Hospital in Detroit, Mich.

• 1893 -- Lillian Wald and Mary Brewster begin the Visiting Nurses Service to provide in-home care.

• 1897 -- The American Nurses Association (then known as the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada) holds its first meeting.

• Late 1800s -- Nurse anesthetists become the first advanced practice nurses.

• 1899 -- The International Council of Nurses is established.

• 1901 -- New Zealand becomes the first country to regulate nurses on a national level.

• 1902 -- New Zealander Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's first registered nurse.

• 1908 -- The United States Navy Nurse Corps is created.

• 1909 -- The American Red Cross Nursing Service is established.

• 1909 -- The University of Minnesota awards the first U.S. bachelor's degree in nursing and sets a new standard for nurses' training.

• 1918 -- Lenah Higbee receives the Navy Cross for distinguished service and devotion to duty as the superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps, and becomes the first living woman to be awarded the Navy Cross.

• 1925 -- Mary Breckinridge and two other nurses establish the Frontier Nursing Service, a group of nurse-midwives who provide prenatal and birthing care in remote areas of Appalachia.

• 1938 -- The Nurses Memorial is completed in Arlington Cemetery, honoring nurses who served in the armed forces during World War I.

• 1951 -- The LPN/LVN levels of nursing are created.

• 1956 -- The Columbia University School of Nursing bestows the first master's degree in a clinical specialty in the U.S.

• 1960s -- Largely due to the Women's Movement, nursing education shifts from hospital apprenticeships to a university model.

• 1965 -- The nurse practitioner designation is established.

• 1979 -- Nurse practitioners are given prescriptive authority in two U.S. states.

• 1980 -- The Roper, Logan and Tierney model of nursing is published.

• 1983 -- The International Council of Nurses adopts a statement on the importance of human rights in nursing.

And the story continues ...

Sources: census.gov; ezinearticles.com; historyofall.com; nurse.med-help.net; vault.com; wikipedia.com.