Florence Nightingale's Birthday

Not just any nurse. In 1856, and according to Sir John Hall, chief British Medical Officer in the Crimea, Florence Nightingale was ‘a publicity seeking meddler’. To this day,  her methods and forcefulness are controversial. At the age of 25, her parents balked - she wanted to be a nurse. She rejected a marriage proposal, an expectation of women at that time, due to what she knew as a calling’. At the age of 30, her parents acquiesced and she began her career.

The Lady with the Lamp,

challenged the military medical community throughout the Crimean War. Conditions in military hospitals her prime concern. Extremely poor sanitation. Overcrowding in unclean, bloodied clothing and bedding. No one person responsible on the wards. Overworked doctors. Women and men, learning on the job, cared for

severely injured and ill soldiers.

Historically, her career, as a reformer of the health care system as a promoter of training for nurses. Should patient advocate be added to her resume? Florence Nightingale an angel of mercy for the patients in her charge became a thorn in the side of the medical establishment of the day, not to mention those that entered nurses training schools. She ran her hospitals and schools with military order, an efficiency unwelcome in today's world.

Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery,

the first professional school of nursing, still active today,

was founded in 1860. Florence Nightingale ~ strong, determined, courageous and stubborn in an age when women dared not overrule  men or the establishment unless independently monied or with supportive family connections

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation 

and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really 

earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.

~ Susan B. Anthony, 1860

Nurses of Another Ilk

It has been quite a trip.

My vacation from my nursing job

has been refreshing and rejuvenating.

My thoughts today go to all nurses outside

of hospitals that, in essence, do 
basic nursing care and 
education in

the streets

mobile clinics

stand alone clinics

nursing homes

extended care facilities
schools

private homes and in

regions outside of major health care centres.

These nurses carry, along with the tools of the trade,

knowledge about

prevention

maintenance.

They refer to other health care professionals and

communicate with

family physicians

pharmacists &

families

suggesting

alternatives before using 'as needed' medication

corrective body positioning for sitting, standing and lying

dietary improvements

supporting 

patients on their journey back to health

families when a journey is nearing it's end.

All nursing populations, 

whether in acute care facilities,

or in these myriad of other positions, have

different levels of

experience

education

personal knowledge.

Nurses aides

Nursing assistants

Licensed Practical Nurses

Registered Nurses from Diploma programs

Bachelor of Science Nurses

Nurse Practitioners

Master’s Prepared Nurses

I am certain I have left out

a type of clinic or

educational level. 

One thing I am certain about is that

the heart and soul of each nurse

comes without classes and degrees, 
is carefully shaped to fit

situations

communities

infrastructures

adding depth and wisdom to nursing tasks.

Nurses working with and for our communities

do so very much for each of us

and for that I am extremely grateful.

"Nursing care comes in many forms. Sometimes it is the ability to make 

someone feel physically comfortable by various means. Other times it is 

the ability to improve the body’s ability to achieve or maintain health.  

But often it is an uncanny yet well honed knack to see beyond the 

obvious and address, in some way, the deeper needs of the human soul."

                - Donna Wilk Cardillo,  A Daybook for Beginning Nurses

Reflections on Advancements in Nursing

I’m flying today home today.

Soon I rejoin the nurses 

at the medical detox where I work.

Nursing tools of the trade

have changed as technology has advanced through the years.

In a three year diploma program in 1965 nursing students learned how to 

take vital signs using sound and touch

give injections

do a bed bath

make a linseed poultice

calculate dietary requirements

provide health teaching for patients

set up traction

make a bed with hospital corners

take out stitches

change dressings

feed a patient unable to feed themselves

hang an intravenous

wrap a tensor bandage

teach deep breathing exercises pre-operatively

Tympanic ear thermometers replace glass mercury thermometers

Assessing Blood Pressure manually vs digitally

Linseed poultices, long a thing of the past, are now microwave hot/cold gel packs - but seldom used

Dietitians in a distant office calculate dietary requirements

Smooth cotton sheets with folded hospital corners are jersey sheets with pocket corners.

A paper world of documentation is being replaced by the electronic world of computers.

On the surface of patient care,

all of these tools are used to dip beneath

to the soul bound by 

physical 

mental

emotional 
unrest and illness.

Easing distress with care, kindness and respect.

Care for those who cannot care for themselves.

"I feel a need for no other faith 

than my faith in human beings.  
~ Pearl S. Buck

Nursing Instructors: Planting Seeds, Fostering Growth

A Nurse Log - Life to Life
Knowledge to Knowledge

Florence Nightingale, a pioneer in establishing
nursing protocols

nursing schools

could be considered one of the first known nursing instructors.

Nurses training would possibly be 

non-existent without nursing instructors.

Caring, an emotional response to 

need 

hurt

is developed long before nursing school.

How to deliver care, while addressing

unhealthy emotional involvement vs healthy personal boundaries

can be a difficult lesson to learn and to teach.

Nursing instructors have

‘been there - done that’.

Have the ability to 

share their knowledge,

developing

minds

hands

hearts

that are ready to learn.

Patience with their students,

love of nursing,

determination to pass on

details and depth of nursing

has encouraged me to

welcome all students nurses

where ever I work,

as did other ‘floor nurses’ as 

nurse fledglings entered 

the world of patient care.

Four pivotal lessons for me were:

 - How to wrap a tensor bandage in a smooth figure eight, lining up the overlap precisely in a line of V’s (Miss Wise)

 - When I asked my instructor why the RN’s didn’t have to do the same things that we were required to do, the pleasant answer I received was:  “Remember that when you’re an RN” (Mrs Ritchie)

- ‘Isn’t it exciting?!” as part of an opening lecture on sociology.  (Mrs. Duthie)

- When I asked if I would have to leave nursing because of newly diagnosed epilepsy, the kind answer I received was:  “Not unless it affects your nursing.”  (Miss Linnell)

Naming all the other nursing instructors both

in the classroom or

at the bedside

is not possible in this space;

you know who you are if you teach nursing.

I am incredibly grateful to each of you for showing me, and all other nurses, the way of nursing.

“Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive 

devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for 

what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with 

having to do with the living body,the temple of God’s spirit?  It is one of 

the Fine Arts:  I had almost said, the finest of the Fine Arts.”

~ Florence Nightingale

Approaching the Dragon's Tail

Women have come so far in the work world.

In the 60’s, there were limited choices for us.

Nursing was one of those choices.

High school completed, it was time to step out in the world.

Staying in the world I had come to know with

a good book

my family

my community

would have been comfortable - temporarily.

My memories are misty about 

my participation in the decision 

to pack my suitcase and 

go to the big city 

where I would spend 

the next three years

learning the details of nursing.

My sister Janet, just two years older than I,

a shining advance party into a nursing career,

graduated with her black band the same year I

entered the Regina General Hospital School of Nursing.

Nursing school in 1965 was

three years in length, had been

exciting 

gross 

routine 

mundane 

technical

frightening

with many hidden learning curves.

The Dragon’s Tail, 

an eleven mile piece of highway 

with three hundred and eighteen curves 

has great potential for

danger

beauty and

challenges

for avid biker's that enjoy the open road.

With the enthusiasm of youth,

the life experience of almost eighteen years,

this small town prairie girl was about 

ride the Dragon’s Tail!

Nursing has proven to be

beautiful

challenging

with some potential for danger.

Constant learning changing procedures and protocols to navigate 

all the curves that continue to confront.

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be 

seen or even touched, they must be felt by the heart.”

~   Helen Keller