Nursing is universal in the sense that nurses can be found almost in all countries around the world (Henderson, 1978). They are in the hospitals, in school clinics, in the community centres, residential homes and even play major roles in some of the popular soap operas in television. There are even television shows that mainly revolve around nurses and which chronicles what they do at work - both the positive and the negative. It is one of the most visible and easily identifiable occupations as compared for example to other occupations such as engineers, managers or even pharmacists, medical technologists and other health related occupations. This is partly because of what nurses do and most especially how nurses look - with some still …show more content…

A nurse is in-charge of the preparation of the food and maintained the cleanliness of the walls and the floors. The characteristics and the activities mentioned by Landale (1895) performed by a lady nurse reflected the ideal nurse envisioned by Nightingale (1860) who espoused that the role of the nurse is to provide an environment to a patient that is conducive for nature’s healing to take its course.

So much has changed in the role of nurses since the time of Nightingale. Nightingale has to be credited though for laying the foundation for much of the milestones in the field of nursing today (Peate, 2006). One of her beliefs which form part of contemporary nursing is the need for theoretical basis in the practice of nursing (Peate, 2006). She believed that apart from being devoted and dedicated to service; nurses must be properly educated in order to learn the systematic approach in the care and assessment of patients. She was also one of the original proponents who espoused that care should be individualized depending on the needs of the person and that confidentiality of care should always be maintained.

Another person that is credited to have paved the way for the improvement and modernization of nursing is Ethel Bedford-Fenwick (Peate, 2006). Fenwick is credited as having formed the British Nursing