Healthcare, over the past century, has shown dramatic changes with people becoming more and more conscious of their health and the need for a healthy life style. The two major wars at the beginning of the twentieth century also brought about a remarkable growth in health awareness and the need for systematic health care.
The main backbone of the health care system is the nursing department. Prior to the mid nineteenth century, there was no organised nursing system. It was a on-the-job training, handed down from mother to daughter or to one’s assistants, or by merely assisting a physician. Midwives were unanimously given the role to take care of accident wounds and to attend to the sick. It was taken for granted that a midwife was knowledgable in various fields of medicine.
Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, started the first school of nursing in 1846, in Germany. The main idea behind the opening of the school was to help prospective nurses understand the role of a nurse, work together as a team by way of division of labour and the hierarchy of the nursing system. Each level of nurses had a specific role and by understanding the system were able to work more efficiently. An apt example to site is the Crimean War (Oriental War) waged by France, UK and Asia Minor against Russia. Nightingale, along with thirty eight nurses took over assisiting the war victims in a military hospital in Turkey, that led to the popularity of her systematic nursing techniques.
The nursing department have various levels of Nurses, split into two main categories.
a) Non registered staff ( assistants and auxillary health care workers)
b) Registered Nurses (RN) – Bachelor / Master’s Diploma or Degree and higher
The Registered Nurses are further divided based on their training and number of years experience.
First level Nurses
Second Level Nurses
Specialized Nurses
Matrons / Manager
Based upon the speciality there are different registered nursing departments.
Midwives
Geriatric
Mental Illness
General Nurses
Paediatric
Adult
Learning Disabilities
Forensic
Operation Theatre Staff
Lecturer Practitioner
Nursing Consultant
With the various specializations in the nursing department, one can trust medical help more and more. It is the nurses who are in constant touch with the patients and most often get to know and understand the reasons behind a person’s illness. Doctors claim to learn a lot from and through the nursing staff, value their feedback and input, rely on their expertise in illness / health fitness documentation and trust their care and management of treatment in the medical field. Without the nursing staff, there would be no organized health care system in a hospital.
