The History of Public Health and the Role of the Community/Public Health Nurse

The History of Public Health and the Role of the Community/Public Health Nurse

The health of people occurs within the environmental contexts and the other people interact within their immediate communities. In order to promote the public health, there is a need of diversified strategies that focus on environmental improvement, the health awareness of individuals and groups, maintaining sufficient water and food, and preventing from illnesses. Regardless of several disciplines that are requires for meeting their goals, but the largest segment of the professional workforce of health is nursing. Historically, Lillian Wald made significant contributions in the field of nursing and today by expanding such historical idea, many nurses and social workers are providing key mechanisms of public health interventions across the globe. As the shortage of nursing has been growing rapidly in settings of acute care, the nurses from several specific areas of the world has been brain drained, and the public dollar has been lessened for the preventive healthcare, so it is essential to take these concerns seriously into consideration.

History of the Public Health Nursing

At the ending times of nineteenth century, the public health field of nursing was established by providing an area of employment to graduate nurses. The idea was generated from the district nursing of England in the period of 1860s, where through philanthropists' funding, nurses care were provided to ill individuals in their homes, as well as the medicines and food item were supplied to such sick and distress individuals of the communities. By adopting that idea from England, two district nurse associations were instituted in the year 1886 in Philadelphia and Boston. Then later on, Lillian came up, who was a public health nurse and established the Henry Street Settlement House for providing home care of nursing to the populations that were immigrants on the lower eastern region of New York. In the year 1893, Lillian Wald commenced the settlement house nursing that is a district nursing's offshoot amongst the population of immigrants.

That lady after graduating from the Training School of New York Hospital started teaching a class of home nursing to the immigrants of neighborhood populations. One day a little kid came to her for her assistance in the care of his mother who had delivered a baby just two days ago. The little child guided her to his home where the young mother of the child was lying on a bed that was full of blood. By seeing that all, Wald became so depressed and decided to dedicate her care to the impoverished population of immigrants of her city. Then, to formulate her decision, she along with her classmate, Mary Brewster, shifted into a tiny apartment in the immigrants' neighborhood in order to provide nursing care to those distressed immigrants that needed any aid. She did all this by the help of funding that were made by the upper classes' women. As the intention of work was divined, so ...