Virtual Exhibition

International Nurses Day 2023

The History of International Nurses Day

International Nurses Day is celebrated every year on May 12th to commemorate the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Florence Nightingale was a British nurse who gained worldwide recognition for her contribution to healthcare during the Crimean War in the mid-19th century.

In 1953, Dorothy Sutherland proposed the idea of celebrating International Nurses Day. She was an official from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This proposal was put to President Dwight D. Eisenhower but it was rejected. In 1965, the International Council of Nurses started observing the day. However, the first IND was celebrated on May 12, 1974 when the ICN chose the 12th May to celebrate this day to coincide with the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.

The purpose of this day is to highlight the important role that nurses play in healthcare and to acknowledge their contributions to improving patient care.

Each year, the ICN chooses a theme for International Nurses Day that reflects the current issues and challenges faced by the nursing profession. This theme helps to raise awareness and stimulate discussion about important nursing-related topics.

Over the years, International Nurses Day has become an important event in the nursing community, and it is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a time for nurses to come together to celebrate their profession, to recognize their achievements, and to renew their commitment to providing high-quality patient care.

The Theme

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) President, Dr Pamela Cipriano explained the theme: ‘Our Nurses. Our Future.’ “sets out what ICN wants for nursing in the future in order to address the global health challenges and improve global health for all. Nurses need to learn from the lessons of the pandemic and translate these into actions of the future that ensure nurses are protected, respected and valued”. Our Nurses. Our Future. campaign will shine the light on nurses and on a brighter future, moving nurses from invisible to invaluable in the eyes of policy makers, the public, and all those who make decisions affecting the delivery and financing of health care. Additionally, the campaign will also look at how nurses must strengthen our health systems to address growing global health demands. It will capture key actions that ICN believes are essential to address both the profession and health systems and which are, of course, mutually beneficial and reinforcing. Together our future depends on every nurse, every voice, to not only be on the front lines of care, but also be on the front lines of change.” (International Council of Nurses)

How International Nurses Day is Celebrated

ICN commemorates this important day each year with various events across the world. One such activity is the production and distribution of the IND the International Nurses' Day kit, containing valuable educational and public information materials that can be used by nurses around the world. ICN and its national nursing associations members across the world look forward to celebrating nurses and working together to chart the future direction of nursing in order to meet the needs of the new normal as well as the Sustainable Development Goals, Universal Health Coverage, and Health for All. International Council of Nurses). Social media celebrations include the use of hashtag #celebratenurses on Twitter, Facebook, etc. (Verma, 2023).

The Founders of Nursing

By Brandt et.al.

Numerous individuals contributed to major movements for nursing. Nightingale is probably the most well-known and has been credited with laying the groundwork for the nursing profession. Countless others have been credited with key nursing advancements throughout the years.Brant et. All write about two of these nurses.

Florence Nightingale was named after the city in which she was born. She was born to a wealthy British family on May 12, 1820. As a child, she cared for sick people living in workers’ cottages around her home. At a young age, she decided caring for people was her calling, a career that was ridiculed and considered a low-class profession at that time. Much to her parents’ dismay, she trained with deaconesses and was soon appointed as superintendent of a small facility, the Upper Harley Street Hospital.

During the Crimean War in 1854, Nightingale learned that the mortality rate for soldiers was almost 50%, from what she concluded was a result of poor living conditions. As a result, she gained permission to bring several ladies with her to the battlefields and introduced cleanliness and sanitation. Over the next several months, deaths and complications in the soldiers declined dramatically. Although she was busy during the day caring for the sick and injured and immersed in administrative duties, she made time to visit soldiers at night, carrying a lamp to light her way. Her relentless compassion and caring while carrying her lamp gave rise to her nickname “The Lady with the Lamp.” Nursing graduation ceremonies honor her memory by using lamps in their rituals.

Nightingale documented the evidence-based care given and the decreased complications during the war and brought the information with her back to London. On her return to England in 1856, Nightingale raised money to fund the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London for the education of professional nurses. Students were educated in nursing theory and specialty care and were trained with clinical experiences on hospital wards. Nightingale also authored the first nursing textbook, Notes on Nursing, in 1859. As a result of her significant contributions to nursing and healthcare in general, Nightingale’s birthday is designated as National Nurses Day, with celebrations extending into the entire week. A pledge, written for Nightingale, called the Florence Nightingale Pledge, is also recited by new nurses before beginning to practice as a nurse.

Source: Weaver (2022). Florence Nightingale. https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/florence-nightingale-1

Dorothea Dix

Dorothea Dix, born in 1802, and was known as a social reformer. Perhaps her most noted accomplishment is her efforts on behalf of the mentally ill. In the 1830s, she taught inmates at a prison in East Cambridge and was appalled at the living conditions in the prison. Both hardened criminals and mentally ill were housed together because at that time mental illness was not well understood. The mentally ill were not considered “ill,” and a lot of times were removed from society and placed in cages or prisons. After witnessing the abysmal conditions, the inmates lived in, she vowed to change things.

Source: Biography (2021). https://www.biography.com/activists/dorothea-dix

Dix was appointed the Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War in 1861. In the role, she was responsible for recruiting female nurses to care for sick and wounded soldiers. Nursing care for the soldiers improved significantly under her reign. Because of her tenacity and reputation for running a “tight ship,” Dix obtained the nickname “Dragon Dix.” After the war, she returned to her efforts regarding the mentally ill.

Over the course of the next half century, Dix lobbied for better living conditions for the mentally ill, fueling her passion with memories of the horrendous living conditions she observed while working in the prison before the war. Due to her tireless efforts, Dix changed the way people thought about the mentally ill, and mental hospitals were opened around the country to house the mentally ill and give them proper care

Clara Barton

Clara Barton, born in 1821. She started out as a teacher in her teen years. When the Civil War began in 1861, women were not permitted to serve on the battlefield, so Barton decided to care for soldiers in Washington City. At the time she did not have any formal training as a nurse, but still rallied to collect medical and other necessary supplies for soldiers on the battlefield. She quickly gained a reputation as an independent battlefield nurse, caring for soldiers from both armies. She was dubbed the “Angel of the Battlefield” by a surgeon during the war.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clara-Barton

In 1863, Henry Dunant founded the International Red Cross to provide needed supplies and services during war. Many nations followed suit, signing the Geneva Treaty and forming separate national Red Cross organizations. The United States initially did not sign the treaty or form a Red Cross organization.

Barton traveled to Europe in 1869 and learned about the international Red Cross. She quickly saw the benefit of the organization, and on her return to the States in 1873, she campaigned and lobbied for the United States to support and form the American Red Cross to provide disaster relief to soldiers and their families. Several years later, in 1881, the American Association of the Red Cross was founded (now called the American Red Cross). Barton volunteered to serve as the first president of the organization.

Barton led the Red Cross for 23 years, and during her reign the organization handled numerous households and managed disaster relief efforts. As a result of her efforts, the organization is still going strong today. The American Red Cross provides care for the victims of disasters in the form of international relief; blood collection, processing, and distribution; military and military family support; and training on health and safety (American Red Cross, 2018).

Linda Richards

Richards, born in 1841, is credited as “America’s first trained nurse.” She moved to Vermont as a child after her father’s death and in her teens began informal training as a nurse. She cared for her mother as a young child, and for her ailing grandfather after her mother’s death. At her grandfather’s insistence, she went to school to become a teacher, but did not care for the teaching curriculum. When the Civil War began, she became very interested in the demand for nurses to care for soldiers and intrigued by reports of the women who cared for ill and injured soldiers in military hospitals. She had heard of the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses in London and wanted to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.

In 1870, Richards decided to seek out learning opportunities for nursing inside a hospital. She moved to Boston and began working as an assistant nurse and ward maid at Boston City Hospital. She stayed for 3 months and left because of health issues. She then heard of a learning opportunity at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, where a training school for nurses would be opened. The school was taught by female physicians who were willing to train women as nurses. Richards enrolled in the training program in 1872 and graduated in 1873.

Soon after graduation, Richards moved to New York and started teaching at Bellevue Hospital Training School, working closely with the nursing director to improve hospital conditions. She worked diligently as a patient advocate and lobbied for policy changes to enhance patient care. She even had the idea to keep a chart of patient records at the bedside so it was immediately available to others involved in the patient’s care, a concept incorporated into such training programs as the Nightingale School of Nursing. She continued to advocate for formal nursing training and opened various schools of nursing, even as far away as Japan.

Source: National Women of Fame (2023). https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/linda-richards/

Lillian Wald

Lillian Wald, known as the “Mother of Public Health Nursing,” was born to a wealthy German-Jewish family in Ohio in 1867 and moved to New York as a child. At the age of 16, she applied to Vassar College and was turned away because of her age. She watched a nurse take care of her older sister during childbirth and was so impressed that she convinced her parents to let her move to the city and pursue a nursing career. She was accepted into nursing school at the New York Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1891. On graduation, she began working at a juvenile asylum in Manhattan. Soon after, she decided to go to medical school.

Shortly after beginning her studies in medical school, Wald observed both poverty and sickness in new refugees on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. The status of the refugees disgusted her so much that she dropped out of medical school and united with Mary Brewster, a fellow nurse, in moving into the illness and poverty-stricken neighborhood to care for immigrants in their homes. She soon realized health was only a small challenge faced by residents, and soon increased services to include teaching, offering arts, and assisting with career placement and housing

In 1893, the United States went through a major economic crisis, which prompted many new migrants to move from Ellis Island and into the city. Wald and Brewster formed the Henry Street Settlement and the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service, now called the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, which became the first and now the largest nonprofit home- and community-based health agency.

A noted Jewish philanthropist, Jacob Schiff, was so impressed by Wald’s work and organization that he gifted the organization a house at 265 Henry Street in 1895. For the next several years, the organization continued to grow and flourish, with Wald leading the way until 1933. During her time as a nursing pioneer, Wald also placed nurses in public schools and assisted with Columbia University School of Nursing’s National Organization for Public Health Nursing.

Wald is remembered as a national leader in movements for public health, social reform, and human rights. Her relentlessness paid off, and her work is still in effect today. The Henry Street Settlement continues to serve the Lower East Side of Manhattan’s population today through social services, arts, and healthcare programs. She even wrote a book, published in 1915, entitled The House on Henry Street.

Source: Nursing Theory (2023). https://nursing-theory.org/famous-nurses/Lillian-Wald.php

"CHAD Nursing Institution Develops Competent Nurses"

By Tanisha Bent, Administrator

The College of Health and Allied Development provides education for students across the world, seeking to obtain higher education in nursing and various related fields of education. Our aim is to transform students into competent workforce leaders. Our students, instructors and staff of the College of Health and Allied Development make up an academic community dedicated to the preservation, communication and discovery of knowledge. We promote equality of opportunities to all students and orderly operation of educational processes, while observing academic honesty, health, safety and the welfare of all persons within our school.

We encourage our students to begin preparing for the demands of nursing from the moment they enter the classroom. Our students are required to take responsibility for their education, not only their financial obligations. By advising them to plan ahead, be prepared, punctual and present at every class, we are cultivating the habit of effective time management. This practice positively impacts their commitment to complete and submit assignments early to meet deadlines and do the work required to pass each course. It is imperative that our students are open to learning through participation, asking the right questions, listening and making appropriate comments in fostering effective communication and clarity in the classroom. Technology plays a major role in the delivery of our classes and communication between students and instructors on various platforms, which our students are trained to efficiently manipulate. As future leaders and team players, we reinforce the need for our students to interact courteously and respectfully with others and provide support to their colleagues. Through diligence, order, effective communication and ethical behavioral practices, College of Health and Allied Development is molding our students into excellent nurses and competent world class healthcare providers.

The Nightingale Pledge

When is the Nightingale Pledge used?

The Nightingale Pledge is recited at a nursing pinning ceremony, which is separate from a graduation ceremony, and usually conducted before graduates sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). The ceremony is a symbolic transition for nursing students as they end their studies and begin their careers as a nurse. Although the Nightingale Pledge applies to all nurses, it is not used anywhere outside of the United States.

This pledge is often recited at graduation/pinning ceremonies for nurses. It is also often included in programs honoring nurses during Nurses Week

Modern Practical Nurse Pledge

While the pledge hasn’t drastically changed, many nursing schools that still use the Nightingale Pledge have made updates to the earlier versions. One change was made specifically to remove the phrase, “loyal to physicians” to promote more independence in the nursing profession.

Pictorial

Story

A Day in the Life of a Midwife.

By Nurse K. Coley, Jamaica

As a midwife, we were taught from midwifery school to make Jesus, the Lord Almighty, as our foundation because the courses we pursued were very challenging and compact. The lecturers realized that when they encouraged students to trust the Lord and make Him their foundation, students' success rate was better!

With this as a backdrop, here is a depiction of a day in the life of a midwife.

It was a day like any other on the Labour Ward during my first month working as a new midwife. The Senior Nurse who was in charge began the shift with a devotional exercise where we sang praises to the Lord, read scripture and beseech Him to be among us and the patients for an uneventful shift.

During the course of the day, there were some challenging moments with some deliveries. During one of these moments, the nurse in charge called for an emergency devotion to ask the Lord to encamp around us, to send his angels to calm the atmosphere and to neutralize any and everything that is not of Him. Shortly after, the atmosphere changed, there was peace, calm and the rest of the shift ended in this fashion.

Instantly I saw the reason why nurses, midwives make devotions a staple on the Labour Ward! Can you imagine how changed our lives would be if we include the Most High God in our every situation?

Greetings from CHAD Staff

K. Alecia Carnegie, CEO, College of Health and Allied Development

It is with great pleasure that I greet the nurses across the world. As a nurse myself, I understand what it takes. When I was a student, I kept hearing people say, “nursing is a noble profession”. I did not understand what it meant at that time. During my time as a nurse on the floor, I developed a lot of other descriptors. Descriptors that matched the day, the mood, and the rigors I was going through with delivering care. As I reflect on those names, I understand why it is described as a noble profession.

Being ‘Noble’ means one is either born into a social class defined as noble, or one displays high moral principles and ideals. The profession being considered noble, means the profession is not considered merely a job, instead the profession is defined by the persons in it. Therefore, sometimes we may hear a person comment: “That is not a nurse”, when someone wearing clothing identifiable as a nurse’s uniform or garb conducts themselves in a manner that is neither moral nor ideal.

It does take a person of high moral character and ideals to thrive as a nurse. Being a nurse requires a love for humanity, daily emotional investments in ourselves, our patients, our colleagues, our place of work, and in patients and their loved-ones and visitors. Let us not forget, there is also our family and our life.

For persons in nursing school and considering nursing, the world is eagerly awaiting your arrival. This is a very important time for the nursing profession, as the need for nurses grows year over year, and so more and more spaces are created just for you with high moral values and ideals.

A few days ago, I met a young lady who wants to be a nurse. This young lady was distraught because she believed she may not be able to join the nursing profession because of her historical behavior. This is a good reminder that while we were not born with the title of noble, thanks to the training and discipline required to become a nurse, persons who are dedicated to contributing positively to humanity through the profession of nursing will obtain the requisite opportunities to be transformed into a nurse through academic instruction, ethics training, and clinical experience.

So, while I say thank you to all the noble and hard working nurses around the world, I also say welcome to the future nurses among us.

Tanisha Bent, Administrator, KAAB Continuum LLC

I knew a nurse who partied heartily, attended exquisite social events, played active roles in her

family, community and received thank you cards from patients on the critical care ward. Many

times she went to work and did not come home for days, instead she called for a fresh suit of

clothes to start the next day and continue her role. She was committed to seeing to the healing

of her patients.

Today she trains nurses to be skilled, licensed, effective and efficient practitioners who are

committed to quality health care delivery. In addition to guiding her students to making patients

well and keeping them fit and healthy, she also teaches them about taking personal time away

from the wards and healthcare facilities to care for themselves, rejuvenate and be ready for their

next shift. It is true that a healthy nurse can better focus, care for their patients and assist other

family members faced with grief.

In celebrating International Nurses Day, I encourage nurses to keep the lamp trimmed and

burning at one end, frequently checking the oil. Remember to care for your patients as you

would want to be cared for, keep learning and keep growing as you bring quality service, hope

and revival to health care in your community and across the world

Lynette Nicole Brown, Finance Department, KAAB Continuum LLC

Happy International Nurses Day to CHAD Scholars

Days like today and always, we pause and say thank you for the role you each play in delivering care to us at our most vulnerable state. You are truly our superheroes and angels in scrubs, as you continue to put yourselves on the frontline of healthcare, time and time again. You have been called divinely for this role, so please accept our thanks and appreciation for all the hard work and hours which you put in.

Paulette Stewart, PhD, Librarian, College of Health and Allied Development

As the librarian at the College of Health and Allied Development, it is my great pleasure to extend my warmest greetings to you all on International Nurses Day. Today, we celebrate and honor the incredible contributions that nurses make to healthcare systems and patient care worldwide. Your selflessness, dedication, and unwavering commitment to improving the lives of others are truly inspiring, and we are all grateful for the tireless work that you do. Especially during these challenging times, you have demonstrated remarkable courage, resilience, and compassion in the face of adversity. Your unwavering commitment to your patients and your communities is a testament to your resolute spirit and dedication to the nursing profession.

So on this special day, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for everything that you do, and to offer my sincere gratitude for your invaluable contributions to the field of healthcare. You are all heroes in our eyes, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Happy International Nurses Day!

International Nurses Day Quotes

A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope – Carrie Latet

Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription – Val Saintsbury

Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon – Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat

Caring is the essence of nursing – Jean Watson

“Save one life and you’re a hero, save one hundred lives and you’re a nurse.” (Unknown)

“Nurses are the heart of healthcare.” — Donna Wilk Cardillo

“As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul, and body of our patients, their families, and ourselves. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou