The earliest era of nursing education began with the Protestant Deaconess Movement of the 18th century, and following hard upon this was the establishment of a Nursing School by the Reverends Friederike and Theodore Fliedner (Floyd, n. d). This school was established in the German city of Kaiserwerth, and though the graduates of this course received no official university degree, their course was an intensive one lasting for three years. This initiative answered to a great worldwide need for nurses, and after thirty years, the nurses trained in this school extended their influence in places such as Milwaukee (Floyd).
A further influencing factor that stemmed from this was the visit of Florence Nightingale to the school in 1851. The things she learned from that school were taken into her practice during the Crimean War, and the success she achieved there (reduction of death rate from 40 percent to 2 percent) induced her to begin her own School of Nursing in London. She later published her book, Notes on Nursing, which became a required text for nursing schools around the world (Floyd, n. d. ). Another major factor influencing the establishment of higher education in Nursing was the American Civil War.
Before this Civil War in the United States’, injured persons even in large cities like Chicago and New York were cared for by nurses trained in religious institutions. These nurses mainly served the poor in “hospitals” set up specifically to meet their needs. By the time civil war broke out in the mid 19th century, no systematically trained nurses existed in the United States to tend to the injured soldiers. At that time, all the nurses that existed still belonged mainly to religious groups, such as the Sisters of Mercy sponsored by the Catholics and the Sisters of Charity.
The enormous numbers of soldiers injured in the war overwhelmed the efforts of these few nurses, and soon there was established a professional school of nursing in the city of New York. This occurred in 1861, and after this many other professional schools were established. Later on, in the 1880’s women from the wealthier classes who were inspired by the efforts of Florence Nightingale also began establishing non-religious nursing schools and organizations (Floyd, n. d. ).
This type of nursing education still preceded the baccalaureate and postgraduate nursing era, but set a strong foundation for this practice, which soon followed hard upon its heels. This began in the early 1900’s where public health courses were made available in colleges of such institutions as the University of Chicago. According to the Visiting Nurses Association, “The first baccalaureate degree program in nursing was initiated at Loyola University in 1935” (Burgess, 2005).
This led to an explosion in nursing degrees over the next few decades, so that by the end of the 20th century, nursing degrees were offered at a large number of schools around the country (and the world) up to the doctoral level. A third factor contributing to the development of higher education in nursing occurred in the 1960’s when nursing personnel in the United States experienced an increase in social benefits. Their salaries were upgraded as were the conditions under which they were expected to work.
According to Burgess, “at the beginning of the decade no nurses had negotiated contracts with their hospitals, [but] by 1970, more than 34 hospitals and agencies negotiated employment contracts with local bargaining units of the Illinois Nurses’ Association” (2005). This circumstance, coupled also with a general and persistent shortage of nurses, made the nursing profession more attractive to persons (especially women) in that era, and led larger amounts to be trained in nursing schools across the country. This influx of nurses led to the strengthening, widening, and establishment of further institutes of higher nursing education.
For the most part in the history of nursing, it can be seen that strenuous and catastrophic circumstances led to the development of higher education. Two of the major influencing factors were in the form of wars, and these major wars made it necessary that nurses become trained in order to deal with the casualties produced during combat. On the European front, the war that led Florence Nightingale to establish her own school in London actually occurred on and around the Russian mainland on an area known as the Crimea (the Crimean War).
This war engaged several of the states of Europe, and made it possible that an awareness of the need for nurses during such crises spread throughout Europe. The human suffering and devastation produced by the war therefore became the impetus for the establishment of nursing schools geared at alleviating such suffering. Similarly, in the United States, the suffering seen and experienced in the Civil War led to an overwhelming of the contemporary nursing practice. This prompted the development of nursing schools of higher education in New York, Chicago and other states.
Also, the influence of Florence Nightingales’ London school was felt even in these places. Other schools of higher education in nursing developed in response to the growing populations in certain cities of the United States. Larger populations meant larger numbers of sick persons, and this created the need for a greater concentration of trained nurses in such urban centers. Furthermore, the circumstances of the 1960’s served to strengthen the position of nursing schools around the country.
Increased social benefits and status of nurses made the profession more attractive, and it enhanced the recruitment of nursing students to fill positions in those institutes of higher education.
References
Burgess, W. “Nursing and Nursing Education. ” The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved on August 6, 2007 from http://www. encyclopedia. chicagohistory. org/pages/913. html Floyd, B. (n. d. ) “Nursing. ” University of Toledo Libraries. Toledo: U. of Toledo. Retrieved on August 6, 2007 from http://www. cl. utoledo. edu/canaday/quackery/quack9. html