I have recently completed an educational book entitled Modern Nursing: How We Got There. The nursing profession has undergone an enormous transformation over the past four decades, and I observed every change as it unfolded during my forty-one-year career as a registered nurse. In this short work, I explore the ancient origins of nursing and explain how what began as a mysterious art steeped in myth and folklore grew into the modern profession that it is today. I earned my master's degree in nursing in 2007, and I am the published author of New Heart, New Life (Christian Faith Publishing, 2017), which documents the story of my heart transplant and how I went on to continue my career in nursing. My hope is that this book will help new nurses appreciate more that very demanding but wonderful profession.
The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles-including limits on nurses' scope of practice-should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.
Nurse: Past/Present/Future examines the culture of nursing on all levels, from its historical development to its status today. The book highlights the power and the value of nurses worldwide and traces the evolution of nursing as a career. There are currently 35 million nurses worldwide, they make up the majority of hospital staff and provide more primary care to patients than any other class of healthcare provider. There is a shortage of nurses in the UK, USA, Canada and a number of other developed countries. Currently only 20% of the nurses in Europe are male, encouraging the stereotypical view of nursing being a female profession. Nurse: Past/Present/Future opens with a look at the importance of nursing to health systems and economics across the world, including the impact of nurse migration patterns on employment demographics. This opening chapter includes a forward-looking essay exploring the prospects and pitfalls of workforce mobility. The second chapter traces the evolution of the nurse’s social standing, appearance, education and skill set, and examines some of the key debates now underway. These are put into context with a look at how nursing has progressed through the twentieth century in response to changes in medicine and society. The focus then shifts to the workplace: looking at the vast number of settings that nurses practice in, from patient homes to war-zone triage and from high-tech hospitals to call centres, and how the current developments taking place in these settings are redefining how nurses work now. The relationship between nurses, doctors and others involved in healthcare is discussed, exploring the working dynamics in previous and current generations of nurses with a contribution looking at nurse-doctor relations in twenty-first century patient care. Lastly, the final chapter traces the trajectories of a selection of nurses in order to convey the aspirations, opportunities, frustrations and accomplishments that define their careers. Beautifully illustrated, comprehensive and global in scope, Nurse is the first book of its kind, dedicated to the past, present and future of the culture of nursing.
Florence Nightingale is famous as the “lady with the lamp” in the Crimean War, 1854—56. There is a massive amount of literature on this work, but, as editor Lynn McDonald shows, it is often erroneous, and films and press reporting on it have been even less accurate. The Crimean War reports on Nightingale’s correspondence from the war hospitals and on the staggering amount of work she did post-war to ensure that the appalling death rate from disease (higher than that from bullets) did not recur. This volume contains much on Nightingale’s efforts to achieve real reforms. Her well-known, and relatively “sanitized”, evidence to the royal commission on the war is compared with her confidential, much franker, and very thorough Notes on the Health of the British Army, where the full horrors of disease and neglect are laid out, with the names of those responsible.
The decade ahead will test the nation's nearly 4 million nurses in new and complex ways. Nurses live and work at the intersection of health, education, and communities. Nurses work in a wide array of settings and practice at a range of professional levels. They are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds and experiences seeking care and they represent the largest of the health care professions. A nation cannot fully thrive until everyone - no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make - can live their healthiest possible life, and helping people live their healthiest life is and has always been the essential role of nurses. Nurses have a critical role to play in achieving the goal of health equity, but they need robust education, supportive work environments, and autonomy. Accordingly, at the request of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on behalf of the National Academy of Medicine, an ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted a study aimed at envisioning and charting a path forward for the nursing profession to help reduce inequities in people's ability to achieve their full health potential. The ultimate goal is the achievement of health equity in the United States built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. By leveraging these attributes, nursing will help to create and contribute comprehensively to equitable public health and health care systems that are designed to work for everyone. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity explores how nurses can work to reduce health disparities and promote equity, while keeping costs at bay, utilizing technology, and maintaining patient and family-focused care into 2030. This work builds on the foundation set out by The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) report.
This book takes a comprehensive and critical look at current issues and trends in nursing, and examines future health care and market place consumer demands—as they relate to success in professional practice. It discusses the ever-accelerating pace of change occurring in the field, and features a broad spectrum of topics that highlight the importance of accountability, responsibility, and critical decision making for nurses of the 21st century. KEY TOPICS Chapter topics present an overview of the evolution of the image, education, knowledge, and professional organization of nurses; discuss professional values and core competencies, the search for employment, nursing issue management and leadership, future challenges, and much more. For new graduates and experienced nurses seeking information about the most contemporary concerns of their field.
Concise, contemporary, and accessible to students with little-to-no prior knowledge of nursing theory, Theoretical Basis for Nursing, 6th Edition, clarifies the application of theory and helps students become more confident, well-rounded nurses. With balanced coverage of grand, middle range, and shared theories, this acclaimed, AJN Award-winning text is extensively researched and easy to read, providing an engaging, approachable guide to developing, analyzing, and evaluating theory in students’ nursing careers. Updated content reflects the latest perspectives on clinical judgment, evidence-based practice, and situation-specific theories, accompanied by engaging resources that give students the confidence to apply concepts to their own practice.
Outspoken writings by the founder of modern nursing record fundamentals in the needs of the sick that must be provided in all nursing. Covers such timeless topics as ventilation, noise, food, more.
