Evolution of Community and Public Health Nursing Week 1

663 Words3 Pages
Evolution of Community and Public Health Nursing
NUR 405
October 21, 2013

Evolution of Community and Public Health Nursing The evolution of community and public health nursing goes back four centuries ago from the British settlers into the New World of America. Many events have led to the advancement of the nursing field after the American Revolution bringing public support for establishing government-sponsored boards of health (Stanhope & Lancaster 2012). Key health issues, perspectives, goals, roles, functions, community and public health partnerships will be discussed. The first influence was the complexity of medicine during the nineteenth-century. Many women performing nursing functions in the almshouses (medical care for all by the Elizabethan Poor Law provided minimal care, most often in almshouses supported by local government, sought to regulate where the poor could live as to provide care during illness) and early hospitals in Great Britain were poorly educated, untrained and often undependable (Stanhope & Lancaster 2012) . Florence Nightingale’s vision to train nurses and her model of nursing education for the nursing profession indirectly influenced the development of public health nursing in the United States (Stanhope & Lancaster 2012) . During the Crimean War, the care of the sick and wounded soldiers was inadequate with cramped quarters, poor sanitation, lice and rats, and limited food and supplies. Nightingale was appointed and sent to Asia Minor to address the situation with 40 ladies, 117 hired nurses, and 15 paid servants. I t was at this time, Nightingale’s concept of public health nursing began to identify health care needs that affected the entire population to mobilize resources and organize themselves and the community to provide needs (Stanhope & Lancaster 2012). Nightingale developed a health
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