This semester has been such a journey for me and I am so
happy that I picked these classed because my both instructors were so
supportive and kind that I don’t know how to thank them. Since this was my
first semester, I went through so much difficulties that I was about to drop
everything and then their encouragement and confidence gave me hope to continue
and I am glad I did. Ms. Knapp is so nice that I can not describe her with words;
I enjoyed her class so much. She always came to class with such energy and
passed it on to us, her class was never boring in fact it was very interesting that
I did not want to miss it. In Mr. Grzymala class, learning history was so much
fun even though I never liked history before; I enjoyed his class and every
minute of it. I learned a lot from English and History classes and I am sure it
will stay with me for a long time. I liked my classmates, there were such an
inspiration to me that I was worried if they didn’t show up in the class, but I
kept it to myself. I think everything happens for a reason, therefore, being in
these courses with these nice people was meant for all of us. Thank you Ms.
Knapp, Mr. Grzymala and my colleagues.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Development of Nursing Profession
Development of Nursing Profession
I was sitting in
my history class learning about the Civil War, was one of the bloodiest wars in
American History. It came to my mind how nurses contributed during that time
and what kind of care was available to provide for the wounded soldiers, and
without a doubt, the dedication and contributions of several significant
figures, healthcare would not be in the advanced stage, it is today. The
question stayed with me until it was time to pick a topic for the research
paper, even though I had a different idea at first, I found this topic more interesting to write
about.
The nursing
profession has had a long history from when it was considered a low-level job
with little pay and suitable for women, to one of the most highly respected
fields, in great demand and the number of male nurses rising. Nursing started
primarily from the Catholic Church where the priest and the nuns helped the
sick and needy, and the nuns served as nurses during wars, epidemics, and
natural disasters. There was no school training for nurses and no sanitizing or
antiseptic regulations to perform. Nursing was learned on the spot, and since
women always cared at home for their family, they provided care for the sick
and wounded. The Catholic Church played an important role throughout this
history even in California.
Most people know the names, however few understand the long history of the
healthcare and nursing profession that includes Florence Nightingale who
modernized nursing and Clara Barton who, during the Civil War of 1861, had
jeopardized her life and used her own money to purchase supplies in order to
accommodate the wounded soldiers and also was the founder of the American Red
Cross. As the number of physicians working at the hospital was gradually
growing, there was a great demand for trained nurses, so the first nursing training
school opened at Bellevue Hospital in New
York City in 1873. By 1890, there were thirty-five
nursing schools which focused to standardize the training and credentials of
nursing.
As medicine was
being discovered and early immigration to America
had begun, Europe went through religious
reformation that divided the continent into Catholics and Protestants. The
Catholic Spanish and French explorers brought the missionaries to the U.S., and their
job was merely to care for the sick during the war and epidemic. One of the
most important developments in nursing was when St. Vincent de Paul founded the
Daughters of Charity. De Paul, a French priest, dedicated his life to serve the
poor, and gathered a group of women who were always eager to help to organize
the charity, causing a surge of growth throughout France and various countries
(Bullough 61-2).
There are famous
nurses throughout history, for example, Florence Nightingale, an English nurse,
contributed her nursing skills in the Crimea War in 1854 to tend for the
wounded soldiers. When she arrived at the scene of battle, she encountered
shortage in medical supplies, no hygiene, fatal infection and even no
equipments to make food for the soldiers. She wrote to officials requesting
donations to improve present conditions. After receiving funds, she was able to
reduce the mortality rate more than two-percent within six months. The title of
“Lady with a Lamp” was given to Nightingale by the soldiers since she always
checked the sickest patient with her lamp after everybody was asleep (Dunahue
244). After the war had ended, she was honored for her brave work and received
a decent amount of money donated to her by the community, and she used the
donation to open the first nursing school in 1860. Nightingale wrote many books
that contributed to the nursing profession and the famous one is Notes on Nursing which arranged the
foundation of nursing profession with principles (Bullough 94).
Clara Barton is
another example of an American- Icon. She dedicated her life to nurse the
wounded during the Civil War and started the American Red Cross. Red Cross
began in Switzerland in 1859
during the Battle of Solferino in Italy,
by Henry Dunant who was raised in Calvinist
Church where he also helped
the sick poor. Witnessing the Battle of Solferino where the soldiers suffered
from the deplorable conditions, lack of basic care and medical supply, Dunant
decided to start the foundation of Red Cross and opened it in 1863 (Bullough
119-121). However America
did not have an organization such as the Red Cross until Clara Barton started
it up. Since childhood, Barton had a knack for nursing and was ten when her
youngest brother David fell from the roof, heavily injured. Doctors believed
David would not make it, but Barton did not give up and stayed by his side days
and nights to nurse him for two years and finally David recovered fully and he
owed his life to his sister (Hamilton 21). Barton became a school teacher for
twelve years and opened one school in Bordentown, in 1852 (Hamilton 29). As the Civil War started in
April of 1861, the number of wounded and dead soldiers was rising, and Barton
found out nothing was being done for proper medical treatment of the soldiers.
She tried to help as much as she could, but she realized most of the wounded
soldiers died because they weren’t attended to for three or four days, or they
died from infection, excessive bleeding, and hunger. She started writing to the
War Department to ask to go to the battle frontline to treat the wounded. There
were a few organizations during the Civil War, such as the U.S. Sanitary
Commission, Soldiers Aid Society and spiritually-oriented Christian Commission
to gather medical supplies and care for the soldiers behind the line, but
Barton changed that by receiving a letter from the surgeon general to serve in
the battle front line. Barton prepared herself by purchasing all the medical
supplies and food to take to the front line with help of few other women
(Hamilton 37).
In the Antietam
War in September of 1862, Barton wrote in her journal about one scene:
Just
outside the door lay a man wounded in the face, ball having entered the lower
maxillary on the
left side and lodged among the bones of the right cheek. His imploring look
drew me to him, when, placing his finger upon the sharp protuberance he said,
“Lady, will you tell me what this is that burns so?”
I replied it must
be a ball…
“It
is terribly painful,” he said. “Won’t you take it out?”
I
said I would go to the tables for a surgeon.
“No! No!” he
said, catching my dress. “They cannot come to me. I must wait my turn, for this
is a little wound. You can get the ball. There is a knife in your pocket.
Please take the ball out for me.” (Hamilton
52)
Barton was scared to do it since
she never operated on anybody before. She reluctantly took her knife out and
removed the bullet. Barton was also titled “The Angel of the Battle Field” by Surgeon
James Dunn who was out of medical supplies and Barton saved him by taking the
supplies to him (Hamilton 50). Due to her exhaustion and illness after the
war, she traveled to Switzerland
to recover and met Dr. Louis Appia, one of the pioneer members of Red Cross
started with Henry Dunant, and the President of the Red Cross in Geneva. Dr. Appia asked
Barton if she could help him with his organization and also make the U.S. to be a
part of the organization since the American Official denied joining a few
times. During her stay in Geneva, the
Franco-Prussian War between the Treaty of Geneva-Germany and France began and
Barton rose from the sick bed and pushed herself to help in the battle (Hamilton 72-75). After her
return to the U.S.,
she had the desire to open the Red Cross in her country and started her mission
by writing to the American Officials to grant the permission. She explained to
the officials that the Red Cross could help during the war and the peace time
when there were natural disasters. Barton received the approval from the
President James Garfield in 1881 to establish the American Red Cross. Her
organization was a remarkable help during the natural disasters such as a
massive fire in Northern Michigan in 1881 and the tremendous flooding on the
Ohio and the Mississippi River in 1884 (Hamilton 84). Today, the Red Cross is
still a non-profit organization based on charity of volunteers and donations persuading
the core principle of compassionate started from the Church.
Another example of
the influence of the Catholic Church in Health Care is the O’Conner Hospital
opened in 1889 in San Jose and it was the first
hospital in Santa Clara
County. Judge Myles P.
O’Conner and his wife, Amanda, became wealthy during the Gold Rush and Sierra
Nevada Mining Company and decided to contribute their fortune to their
community by opening a nursing home for elderly in need. They purchased a land
more than 8 acre to build a residence home. As the construction was under way,
Mr. O’Conner contacted the Archbishop of San Francisco discussing about opening
a sanitarium. The hospital in his words was “A sanitarium for the sick, a home
for the aged, and an asylum for orphans and school for children” (Perret 1).
Amanda O’Conner requested the Daughters of Charity to manage the hospital, and
today the hospital is still run by the Daughters of the Charity Health System
and in 1898 they opened a nursing school to train staff with hospital protocols
and standards. Over 100 years, the O’ Conner Sanitarium changed to O’Conner Hospital
and as the community was growing and there was a greater demand for healthcare,
the hospital was moved to a bigger location in 1953. Not only more medical
staff was hired, but also more advanced medical equipment was purchased. By
following the desire of St. Vincent de Paul to reach for the poor, the
Daughters of Charity established two sub Charities, the Adult Gift of Life
program and the Parish Nurses. The Adult Gift of Life is mainly focused to find
patients in critical condition but cannot afford medical treatment. The program
mainly searches in third world countries where there is no proper medical care
available and sponsor all the costs from plane ticket to hotel room; the
medical team donate their time throughout the process. The Parish Nurses reach
through the community and work with five local churches and two Catholic Senior
Centers. The nurses travel to the poor who have no health insurance to screen
the health of individuals, educate them about their condition, provide group
support and give doctor referrals. As Cassandra Perret states, “Last year,
Parish Nurses diagnosed 1,474 people with abnormal conditions when screened for
high blood pressure, blood sugar, poor vision and obesity” (Perret 2).The
nurses attended to the patients by educating them and providing opportunities
to control their conditions and saved lives through this movement.
Since O’Conner Hospital receives generous
donations, plans to invest $12.5 million to build a new Emergency Department in
a 14,000 sqf land with 21 beds and the most advanced equipments. By improving
the Emergency Department, the hospital will meet the state safety standards
during the earthquake and reduces the wait times to receive care as the
population is growing (Perret 1-2).
Another
contribution to Santa Clara County is the Valley
Medical Center
in San Jose, which is currently going through renovations
approved by Santa Clara
County voters in 2008.
The $966 million project is to provide the hospital and the medical buildings
on the main campus and $419 million to construct a 140-bed building. The
expansion of the Valley
Medical Center
is very critical to the area because the number of patient obtaining care has
increased by 45% since 2000 (Azevedo 1).
Since history is
often a witness of improvement in all aspects of human life and their
necessities, nursing profession has advance to the current level. Good nursing is
based on anatomical knowledge, physiology, hygiene and bacteriology, none of
which existed in the past. As the nursing profession has changed and developed
for the better, the dedication and compassion of the nursing profession hasn’t
changed. History has always been a witness of many people sacrificing their
lives and donating their efforts to improve their community and country. The current
nursing profession also owes the advancement to Clara Barton, Florence
Nightingale and many more.
The healthcare
system is still developing but it has already spewed out advanced life altering
technology and this can easily be seen through the transformation of O’Conner
Hospital all thanks to the Daughters of charity and Valley
Medical Center
for providing billions of dollars for construction the latest equipment to care
for the fast growing population of Santa
Clara County.
Works Cited
"Welcome
to Daughters of Charity - Province of the West." Welcome to Daughters
of Charity –
Province of the West. Web. 08 May 2012.
<http://www.daughtersofcharity.com/Pages/default.aspx>.
Perret, Cassandra. "Our Tradition
of Compassionate Care." O'Connor Hospital. Web. 19 May
2012.
<http://www.oconnorhospital.org/about-us/our-tradition-of-compassionate-care/>.
Azevedo, Mary Ann. "Space." Top
Stories. 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 May 2012.
<http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/scvmc/agencyarticle?path=/v7/Santa
Clara Valley Medical
Center - SCVMC (DEP)/News
& Events/Top Stories>.
Hamilton, Leni. Clara Barton. New York: Chelsea House,
1988. Print.
Donahue, M. Patricia., Patricia A.
Russac, and Teresa E. Christy. Nursing, the Finest Art: An
Illustrated History. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1985. Print.
Evans,
Sara M. Born for Liberty.
New York:
Tree, 1989. Print.
Bullough, Vern L., and Bonnie
Bullough. The Care of the Sick: The Emergence of Modern
Nursing. New York:
Prodist, 1978. Print.
Griffin, Gerald J., and Joanne K.
Griffin. History and Trends of Professional Nursing. St. Louis:
Mosby (Periodicals), 1973. Print.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Clara Barton
Hamilton, Leni. Clara Barton. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.Print.
Since Clara Barton
was ill from the exhaustion of teaching and opening the new school in
Bordentown, she moved to Washington
and stayed with her sister, Sally. After her recovery, she got a job in the
government office which she was the only woman working and got paid as equal to
men, but it didn’t last long since there was so many complains. So Barton
started to know people in higher offices in order to keep her job and she
became a close friend with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. As the Civil War had started
in April of 1861, the number of wounded and dead soldiers was rising and Barton
found out nothing was done to prepare for the medical treatment of the
soldiers. She tried to help as much as she could, but she realized most of the
wounded soldiers died because of not being treated for three to four days and
they died because of infection, excessive bleeding and hunger. She started
writing to the War Department to ask to go to the battle frontline to treat the
soldiers. In the time of the Civil War, there was no nursing school to be
trained, women always nursed the wounded during the war and that was how they
learned the job. There were few organizations during the Civil War such as the
U.S. Sanitary Commission, Soldiers Aid Society and spiritually- oriented
Christian Commission to gather medical supply and care for soldiers behind the
lines, but Barton changed that by receiving a letter from the surgeon general
to serve in the battle front line. Barton purchased all the medical supply and food
to take to the front line from her own money. She worked patiently and
efficiently with very little rest and food. After the war was over, she
arranged an organization to locate and trace the missing soldiers and she
helped to find more than 22,000 soldiers in about four years. She also gave
many lectures about her experience during the war. Due to her illness and
exhaustion during the war, she traveled to Switzerland
to recover and met Dr. Louis Appia the president of the Red Cross in Geneva. Dr. Appia asked
Barton if she could help him with his organization and if she also could make
the U.S.
be part of the Red Cross since the American Officials denied joining this
organization few times. During her stay in Geneva, the Franco- Prussian war between the
Treaty of Geneva-Germany and France began and Barton rose from the sick bed and
pushed herself to help in the battle. After her return to U.S., she had the desire to open
the Red Cross in her country and started her mission by asking help from Dr.
Appia and writing to the American Official to grant the permission. She tried
to explain to the officials that the Red Cross could help during the war and
the peace time when there were some natural disasters. Barton received the
approval from the President James Garfield to organize the American Red Cross.
Her organization was a remarkable help during the natural disasters such as a
massive fire in northern Michigan and the
tremendous flooding on the Ohio and the Mississippi River. She attended the International Red
Cross Conference in Geneva
and gave lectures and wrote a 700 page book about the Red Cross. She also helped other countries during
war like Spain and Armenia and
opened Red Cross in those countries. She never wed and died at age 90 from
tuberculosis with all her friends by her side. The home she lived in is a
national historic site and her childhood home is a museum.
Annotated Bibliography
"Our Tradition of Compassionate
Care." O'Connor Hospital. Web. 08 May 2012.
<http://www.oconnorhospital.org/about-us/our-tradition-of-compassionate-care/>.
O’Conner Hospital in
Evans,
Sara M. Born for Liberty.
New York:
Tree, 1989. Print.
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