Nursing in History

After having researched nursing before the 17th century, I am eternally grateful to have opportunity to practice and broaden my skill and art in today's society. As a woman I am increasingly aware of the fight and struggle that other women went through so that today I can have the courage to work for the benefit of health with out being accused of being "a lady of the night" or a witch. I also learned about some of the amazing people that set the foundation for nursing as it is today. People who's mission it was to heal people not only in spirit but in body as well and others who made it their ambition to serve their patients as their masters. Some of these people risked life and soul to help their fellow humans. With out these people who in some cases laid down their lives for the right and the privilege to practice nursing I would not be blessed with the tremendous opportunities that I am afforded today. Those people set the bed rock of what nursing is and  can be and because of them we get to be nurses.
   Nursing has never been an "easy" profession. But compared to what it was, we nurses of today have no idea of the luxuries we have in our practices. From Phoebe in the book of Romans in the Bible to the Franciscan orders of caring for the sick, nursing before the 17th century had a lot of ups and downs.

The following picture is of me and some of my co-workers after a long day at work. However, I have a feeling it was not as long or as hard as our predecessors. What we now have to be grateful for and to learn from is truly inspiring.

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