Nursing Pioneers Fought against Racism

Nursing pioneers had to overcome racism and gender discrimination but continued to push for change in the health care field. Mary Seacole was a Jamaican nurse who took in the craft of caring from her mother. Like Nightingale, Seacole conducted her own forensic science studies on an infant who died of cholera in Panama, which lead her to want to aid the nurses in the Crimean War. Unlike Nightingale, Seacole faced racism and was denied the right to join Nightingale group of nurses by the British Army because she was black. After a few endeavors to join Nightingale's failed, Secole, who was not a lady of riches, obtained her very own provisions and voyaged in excess of 3000 miles to the Crimea, where she manufactured and opened a caring house. Being denied selection into the army did not discourage Seacole; she stayed steadfast and committed to nursing the sick during the Crimean War.

By the 1900s states had began to require nurses to be registered before caring for people. Lillian Wald was a pioneer in public health nursing. Wald created the first practice for public health nurses. Like the previous pioneer nurses Wald was a reformer in the nursing field and her work educate patients on good health practices. Her practice purpose was disease prevention, well-baby care, health education, and treatment for minor illnesses. Like Nightingale, Wald believed that prevention of disease among workers would improve productively. Wald created the first nursing practice for occupational health. She was also one of the pioneers who help to establish community health nursing. Before the twentieth century, general wellbeing nursing rose up out of 'district nursing,' a kind of nursing concentrated on the care of the sick and poor in their homes. An example was the Henry Street Settlement established by Lillian Wald. The district medical caretakers not just gave physical consideration to patients with irresistible sicknesses and intense conditions, yet additionally perceived the significance of financial, natural, and social conditions in tending to these issues. The points of the visit were to care for the debilitated, particularly when the patient couldn't be sent to a clinic; show the family how to treat the patient; and to shield general society from the spread of sickness.

These nursing pioneers brought unity to a profession filled with racism, chaos, sexism, and disrespect. Nursing has now evolved to play a critical role to a healthy nation. All of the nursing pioneers initiated change to improve the health care community for every race, social economical class, and gender. Increasingly, health care providers need to learn about various cultural values and health practices and coordinate them into care. They need to continuously teach tolerance and understanding of cultural diversity as well as positive health practices. Nursing will continue to evolve in today’s society as the forefront in patient care, preventable medication errors, lowering infection rates, and public health research.

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