REFLECTIVE PAPER ON NURSING

Reflective Paper on Nursing

Reflective Paper on Nursing

Nursing is a leading profession in the sphere of healthcare. The profession is in a major transition. With the passage of time it has become more sophisticated and reaching high to achieve a better status and demands great respect and admiration. While the world is striving for material success, the profession of nursing is based on an interesting humanitarian ground. In my personal view, nursing professional must fundamentally believe that every human being has a unique self and biophysiological and spiritual needs. For me, the philosophy of nursing provides for care to all without any discrimination of race, status, religion, ethnicity or nationality. Nurses play an important role in the development of the health care department as they see the needs, the gaps, and the shortcomings as well as the achievements of the health care system.

Competent nursing has been central to the care of people with disabilities for many centuries. Up until the nineteenth century, people who were sick or disabled because of old age, mental illness, or physical disability were usually cared for by their families at home. For the poor sick and destitute, institutional care existed in local charitable guest- or poor houses. Professional nursing care by skilled nurses who were paid for their work, either in these institutions or through visiting nursing associations, grew during the nineteenth century. At that time, patterns of living and the provision of health care changed as a result of broader social changes, such as industrialization, urbanization, and changing work and gender relationships.

As far as the global view is concerned, nurses' role in care for the sick and disabled originated in religious orders, founded at the time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Women and men who joined religious orders actively devoted themselves to poor relief and care for the sick. They viewed the care they provided as part of their religious practice and learned nursing skills through apprenticeship. With the foundation of the Daughters of Charity in France in 1633, cofounders Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac set a remarkable example of organized nursing care by lay women. The Daughters of Charity gained enormous social respect. Religious calling and spiritual commitment to God legitimized their role. So strong was the example that Roman Catholics and Protestants alike adapted to this model, and charitable nursing orders spread over Europe and North America through the ...