The Creation of Public Health Nursing, Essay Example

The importance of public health nursing and its effect on patient care today cannot be over-emphasized, and it is arguable that the two women who had the largest influence in this development were Florence Nightingale, in England, and Lillian Ward, here in America.   This paper will briefly discuss their achievements and go on to explore how those achievements affect the way public nursing is practiced today.

The History of Public Health Nursing

Florence Nightingale, though most famous for her role in nursing education and development during the horrors of the Crimean War, was also a social advocate for the improving the community health of the poor (Monteiro, 1985, p. 181).  In both her wartime nursing and her work with the poor in England, she put an emphasis on cleanliness, hygiene, clean air and water (Baley, 1994, p. 57) which is a cornerstone of public health nursing even today, especially in the developing world.  Over the course of 30 years, Nightingale wrote 11 papers “emphasizing the need for special training for public health nurses” (Monteiro, 1985, p. 182) which included the importance of good public hygiene for preventing the spread of disease and these papers helped to define what public health nursing should include.

Here in America, it was Lillian Wald who is credited with coining the term “public health nurse” (Buhler-Wilkerson, 1993, p. 78) and she was one of the first who understood that “individual health depended to some extent on the health of the population generally” (Buhler-Wilkerson, 1993, p.79).  Her Harley Street settlement was opened in 1893 to aid the conditions of the poor in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and by 1913, the settlement had a “staff of 92 nurses making 200,000 visits annually” (Henry Street Settlement, 2014, p.1) and this is arguably the birthplace of American public health nursing.

How Wald and Nightingale Shaped Public Health Nursing

The influence of women like Florence Nightingale and Lillian Ward on public health nursing has been profound: it was Nightingale who helped to develop the concept, so central to nursing today, that “the goal of nursing…[is] to provide a safe and caring environment that promotes patient health and well-being” (Selanders & Crane 2012). Her promotion of the role of the nurse as an advocate for her patients has also provided guidance for nurses practicing in the 21^st century (Selanders & Crane 2012, p. 56).  Wald’s work, too, were just as important in shaping public health in America, including her “invention of public health nursing itself, the establishment of a nationwide system of insurance payments for home-based care and the creation of a national public health nursing service” (Buhler-Wilkerson, 1993, p. 57), all of which have shaped public  health nursing practice today.

Works Cited

Baley, M. (1994).  Florence Nightingale and the Formation of Public Health Nursing.  Humane Medicine Health Care. 5(3), 56-58. Retrieved from www.humanhealthcare.com/article.asp?art_id=235

Buhler-Wilkerson, Karen.  (1993). Bringing Care to the People: Lillian Ward’s Legacy to Public Health Nursing.  American Journal of Public Health. (Vol. 12, pp. 78-86).

American Public Health Association Press: Washington, DC.  Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC164935.

Henry Street Settlement.  (2014). Lillian Wald.  Henry Street Settlement Website.  Retrieved from www.henrystreet.org/history/lillian_ward.

Monteiro, L.  (1985). Florence Nightingale on Public Health Nursing.  American Journal of Public Health.  (Vol. 2, pp. 181-186).  American Public Health Association Press: Washington, DC. Retrieved from: www.ncbi.nih.gov/pmc/article/PMC1645993

Selanders, L. & Crane, P.  (2012). The Voice of Florence Nightingale on Advocacy.  The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.  (Vol. 1, pp. 56-58).  American Nursing Association Press: Retrieved from www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/anamarketplace/ana-periodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol17-2012/No1-Jan-2012/Florence_Nightingale_Advocacy