But for nurses, private duty often did not provide regular and dependable employment; nurses were hired on an ad hoc basis by patients and were oftentimes without a regular source of income. The cost of private duty was also quite high, limiting the number of patients employing private duty nurses.
It was not until the mid-twentieth century that hospitals hired nurses as regular staff on a permanent basis, providing full professional nursing services to all hospitalized patients.
Despite the many difficulties within the profession, nursing continued to grow as an occupational field and became recognized as an essential health care service by the early twentieth century. Nurses fanned out into diverse fields delivering services to many people outside of hospitals. July 4, celebration in Paris.
About 23, American nurses served in the military, delivering care to the armed forces both in the United States and at the war front,.
The success of military nurses in providing essential care during the war insured their participation in succeeding conflicts. At home, nurses continued to provide essential service to the civilian population. The special skills possessed by nurses were easily transferred to different fields of health care. For example, nurses were educated to administer anesthesia during surgery, leading to the specialty field of nurse anesthetists.
By the s, in some parts of the country, nurse-midwives delivered babies, in many cases to the most impoverished populations. Nurse examining chest tube drainage bottles, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, During the s and s, hospitals continued to expand adding more and more patient beds and delivering care that was rapidly becoming more complex. Nurses were the most essential ingredient in insuring that patients received competent care delivered in a safe manner.
Hospitals continued to rely heavily on student nurses for patient care, but a trend emerged in which hospitals hired more nurses who had completed their education and graduated. When the United States entered World War II, nurses duplicated the excellent work they had performed in World War I, taking critical positions in the armed services and insuring that the military received appropriate care.
About 78, nurses served in World War II, their contributions acknowledged as essential to victory. The post-World-War-II era posed new challenges for the profession. While the modern intensive health care system that emerged after the war demanded larger numbers of nurses to handle the increasingly complex and technical care needs of patients, there seemed to be fewer young women the major population from which nursing drew its recruits willing to choose nursing as a career.
Nursing failed to keep up economically with other occupations. Severe shortages of nurses characterized the immediate post war period, threatening the delivery of health services to the public.
At the same time, internal debates within the profession over the type of work in which nurses should engage and the proper way to educate a nurse divided nurses into different camps. Some educators and other health care Professional Adjustments class for senior students, Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing, analysts promoted removing nursing education from its base within hospital training schools and placing it in institutions of higher education.
By , approximately college-based nursing education programs awarded Bachelors of Science in Nursing degrees. These experts believed baccalaureate educated nurses would be better prepared to care for the complex needs of late-twentieth-century patients and would be able to take on more advanced roles in the delivery of health care.
Proponents of the traditional hospital-based diploma programs disagreed, arguing that nurses trained in hospital programs excelled at delivering bedside care, the major area in which nurses worked.
Before the debate was settled one way or the other, a new nurse educational program centered in two-year community colleges emerged.
Community-college-based programs also known as Associate Degree programs seemed to offer the best of both worlds. Education took place in institutions of higher education, and the demands of patient care did not intrude on the learning process as often occurred in diploma programs. Graduates of community college programs seemed well suited to assume employment as hospital bedside nurses.
Further, the ability of community college programs to graduate large numbers of nurses offered potential respite from repeated nurse shortages. The community college movement achieved only partial success. Community college programs did graduate many new nurses and often at a lower cost than traditional diploma programs.
But, as the needs of late-twentieth-century patients became increasingly more complex, research studies indicated that being treated by nurses prepared at the baccalaureate level improved patient outcomes.
Nurse with an intensive care patient, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Despite disagreements among nurses about the appropriate type and place of nursing educational programs, the profession itself flourished in the late twentieth century. In the mid-twentieth century nursing abandoned its objectionable system of racial and gender segregation, opening up equal educational, professional, and employment opportunities to all nurses.
Beginning in the s, new types of nurses, who specialized in different hospital settings such as intensive care units, and nurse practitioners who were trained to deliver a variety of primary care services began to appear on the health care scene.
Today, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and other specialty-area nurses are well established and carry out a significant portion of health care activities. Nursing education also thrived in the latter half of the twentieth century. Significant federal financial support for educating nurses, which became available beginning in the s, permitted the revamping and modernizing of many nursing educational programs.
Significantly, increased funding for nursing research permitted nursing to develop a sounder scientific basis for its practice. The next evolution of nursing was in education. Women started receiving training to become nurses in small to mid-size hospital systems. Their education was observation-based and took two to three years. After graduation, the hospital that owns the education center would bring them on as full-time nurses. As time went on, hospitals grew larger, and education became more comprehensive.
Nurses of all races and backgrounds were accepted into programs and became part of the workforce. Technology began to play a larger role in nursing. Advanced patient beds, stethoscopes and blood pressure devices became the norm. In the s, specialized nursing began to emerge. Nurses could be trained for intensive care units or other specialties. Specialized nurses helped hospitals deliver better, more efficient care to their patients.
The evolution of nursing continued in its education system. Advances in technology and medicine created the need for more educated nurses. Nursing education moved from hospitals to the classroom. Certification programs emerged, allowing nurses to perform certain duties. Degree programs granted access to treat patients in hospitals. A college degree or nursing specialist certification is require for nurses to enter the hospital environment.
Education consists of a few years in a classroom setting. Virtual and in-person labs simulate the working environment. From there, nurses in training are required to work alongside registered nurses to gain experience before graduating. After graduation, nurses must continue their education. Medicinal advancements, new technology and other factors keep nurses in the classroom long after college.
Continued education is a must. The employment outlook for nurse practitioners is exceptionally bright because the U. A shortage of physicians and a growing population of aging adults has created a deficit of primary care providers. Nurse practitioners are qualified to provide primary care services independently, as well as in collaboration with other health care professionals.
Nurse practitioners can specialize in dozens of areas. The most comprehensive specialty is the family nurse practitioner FNP , who sees patients of all ages. They focus on health promotion, disease prevention and the treatment of illnesses that fall under primary care. Nurses have always played an essential role in patient care.
But today, that role is even more apparent. According to the U. Department of Health and Family Services, nurses spend more time with patients than doctors. They also interact regularly with every member of the patient's health care team. These factors, in addition to indispensable clinical work, empower nurses to ensure that health care teams are rendering high-quality care.
A vast body of evidence associates exceptional nursing with positive patient outcomes, especially among nurse practitioners. According to AANP, research shows that nurse practitioners provide care that is safe, effective and patient-centered. Moreover, compared with patients of doctors, nurse practitioner patients report higher satisfaction, have fewer unnecessary hospital readmissions and fewer potentially preventable hospitalizations. Many organizations now recognize the impact of nurse practitioners and are calling on lawmakers to allow them to practice as fully and autonomously as they are trained to do.
Nurse practitioners demonstrate high quality of care that is safe, effective and patient-centered. Change is the one constant in the evolution of the nursing profession. Comprehensive training has enabled nurses to assume greater responsibility in more areas of health care.
Even as their duties expand, nurses continue to provide high-quality care. According to IOM, today's nurses have the potential to implement sweeping advancements in the U. But a commitment to lifelong learning is one of the prerequisites.
The future of nursing relies partly on the academic progression and engagement of nurses. If you are a registered nurse with a bachelor's degree in nursing, then it's time to consider earning a master's degree.
Graduate-level education can help you become proficient in areas that IOM deems critical, including leadership, research and teamwork. It is considered one of the nation's top graduate nursing programs and is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Texas Woman's online FNP equips candidates with advanced knowledge and clinical experiences to become holistic primary care providers. Submit your information to access a comprehensive digital program guide.
One of our dedicated admissions counselors will contact you shortly to discuss next-steps. Texas Woman's University Online's technology partner works with multiple universities to offer online programs. You understand that these calls may be generated using an automated technology, including by way of example, auto-dialer and click-to dial technologies.
Calls may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Refer a Friend. Get Started. December 6, Training One prominent change in the evolution of the nursing profession is formalized education. Responsibilities Another highlight in the evolution of the nursing profession is that nurses now have a broad scope of duties.
Nurse practitioners are now among the most sought-after professionals in the health care field.
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