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.

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