The Historical Development of Nursing Practice: from Florence Nightingale to Diverse Roles

Abstract

This essay aims to trace the development of nursing practice over the past 150 years, beginning with the work of Florence Nightingale in the 19th century. Nightingale's efforts to reform nursing education and practice initiated a process of professionalization for nurses. This process has led to the wide variety of nursing roles and responsibilities we see today. The variety of roles that nurses carry out can be explained in part as a result of the wide scope of society’s perception and definition of nursing. The public and media often provide a holistic definition, including ethical values such as caring, intuition in practice, and a concern for the patient in the context of the family and society. There have been and continue to be significant social and economic influences that shape the role of nurses and how many are currently shaped today. For example, changes in admission rules and roles have contributed to a reduction in the number of state-registered nurses and a significant increase in the number of assistant and junior nurses, currently in nursing associate positions. This essay argues that the historical context of nursing should be considered in the discussion of contemporary roles of nursing. This essay thus offers an analysis of several milestones at different historical epochs when nursing practice was transformed to respond to patient health needs and public perceptions. In the next section of this essay, the historical dimensions of the profession are used to inform several key reports on the development of nursing practice and build a base for a discussion of the diversity of nursing roles that currently exist today. In this essay, I argue that such professionalization and the diversity of nursing practice formed follow the patient health needs in the UK and public and media perceptions of what nurses have to offer. (Cindy et al.2020) (Cindy et al.2020)