"The world needs to increase the health workforce by 18 million in order to achieve and maintain universal health coverage by 2030," explains WHO. That is why, together with the World Health Organization, local and national schools have joined in celebrating two hundred years of modern nursing, calling for the advancement and awareness of the profession. Similarly, although nurses and midwives account for nearly 50%of the world's health workers, there is a worrying shortage of professionals, particularly in Africa and South-East Asia. Today only 10% of nurses are Latino or Hispanic although the number continues to grow.ĭuring the Coronavirus pandemic, these professionals have been on the front line, putting their lives and their families at risk, despite still being one of the lowest-paid professions in the world. Ildaura Murillo-Rodhe founded the National Association of Hispanic Nurses in 1975, which gives voice to and responds to the needs of nurses in the community. It wasn't until 1971 that the first Latina would graduate in a nursing school. The second half of the 20th century would see the diversification of the profession, from intensive care nurses to nurse practitioners, as well as the establishment of specialized educational centers to create quality standards in undergraduate and graduate programs. Paradoxically, after the end of the conflict, there was a profound shortage of these professionals, a problem that persists today. Later on, during World War II, about 78,000 people registered as nurses. In 1896, the American Nurses Association was founded to help promote the value of nurses in health care, and in 1918, during the influenza epidemic, student nurses represented the majority of staff in American hospitals. Her work led to the growth of public health in the country. In 1893, nurse Lillian Wald founded the Henry Street Settlement House, which provided accessible nursing and social services to the poorest communities on Manhattan's Lower East Side. "When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds," said The Times in a Thursday, Februnote.įollowing in her footsteps was Clara Barton, a nurse who served during the American Civil War and was better known as "The Angel of the Battlefield," and who would eventually found the American Red Cross in 1881. The press of the day would describe her as "a ministering angel" whose "slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her.” Together with a group of nurses, Nightingale was transported across the Black Sea to the British barracks of Selimiye in Scutari (now Üsküdar district, Istanbul), to find hundreds of wounded and badly treated soldiers in the hands of an overloaded medical team.ĭuring her first summer in Scutari, Nightingale would see more soldiers suffering from infectious diseases than battlefield injuries, caused mainly by overcrowding, lack of ventilation, and poor general conditions. Thanks to her father's financial support, the young trainee was able to join the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen as superintendent until the outbreak of the Crimean War. It was not until the early 19th century that scientific developments, such as the invention of the microscope, allowed the birth of what we know today as the health sciences. Better known as Beguines, they were intellectual volunteers who worked to stay active and often lived near hospitals and churches.īetween the Protestant Reformations –which established that charitable works were not necessary to obtain salvation– and the close link of nursing care and religion, the profession was stagnant in its research development for almost three centuries. It was in the mid-15th century when the first associations of Christian women who dedicated their lives to the care of the poor and sick appeared. Hence, military orders dedicated to nursing emerged, such as the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, the Teutonic Knights, and the Knights of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem. Once Christianity became the dominant religion in medieval Europe, it was men in religious orders that had the role of caring for the sick, especially during the Crusades. Since the founding of the world's first nursing school in India in 250 B.C., the theocratic structures of ancient societies allowed only men to care for sick people, except for pregnant women who were always cared for by midwives.