Changes in nursing since the age of Florence Nightingale

Today's nurse is a leader and an active participant in patient care. According to Rosseter, "Today’s nurse practices in a variety of new and different capacities given the rise of accountable care organizations, primary care health homes (medical homes), nurse managed health centers, retail clinics, community health centers, and in other care models. Preparing nurses with the skills needed to provide leadership in adapting to these new systems is critical to meeting the needs of a diverse patient population” (Rosseter, 2011).

The various functions the nurse serves today are numerous. Nurses treat patient conditions. Nurses educate patients and families about illnesses and preventive medicine. Nurses are responsible for gathering patient history. Nurses perform diagnostic tests and must be able to interpret these results. Nurses give medication. Nurses are responsible for giving treatments ordered by the physician. Nurses must know how to work medical equipment in order to help treat their patients (United States Department, 2011).

In Florence's era, nurses were considered to be of a lower statue than prostitutes. Nurses had no formal training. Florence helped to change the nursing profession by creating training schools for nurses. She made changes in sanitary conditions that lowered the death rate from disease during the Crimean War (Bloy, 2010).


References

Bloy, M. (2010, June 10). The victorian web: florence nightingale. Retrieved from http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/florrie.html

Rosster, R. (2011). U.S. nursing schools transform master’s education by adopting new standards reflecting contemporary nursing practice. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media/newsreleases/2011/essentials.html

United States Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2011. (2009). Registered nurses Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm