Reflective Journal Week 2 - Nursing Across The Ages Class

1. What I learned

I learned a lot of interesting things this week. First, from the article I found about caring for those who are dying. I learned that people before the 17th century were more worried about the salvations of their soul than their body. Care was mostly focused on symptom relief, and holistic approaches were accepted and common. I also learned a lot from the article those in my team posted. After reading the articles, I came to see that, while there are differences between modern nursing and nursing pre- 17th century, there are still many similarities. One of the similarities that my team member made was that nurses still care for all, regardless of religion, sex, race, etc. I also learned something interesting from a team member about the demographics of nurses pre- 17th century. That is, there were many male nurses back then! Even now, nursing seems to have more females than males, so I thought, especially in the past, there would be more girls. However, it turns out that there were many male nurses in this time period and they were favored! Very interesting to me. I had no idea.

2. How I will utilize what I learned into my nursing practice

One thing I thought I would apply to my nursing practice from what I have learned, is to make sure to care for the spiritual side of people. That was an important aspect of nursing pre- 17th century, but I think it is important even in modern day. Patients need not only their physical needs met, but also their spiritual. I think how I can do this as a nurse is to accommodate their spiritual/cultural needs. Spirituality seems to be very individualized, so it would be a good thing to assess, so that you know how to meet the needs of your patient.

3. Personal feelings about the time period covered

I have an appreciation for things of the past. I find it fascinating to learn about how people did things back then. I feel that there are many things that we might not understand, since we live in a different time. I was surprised to find that focusing on the health of the soul was just as, if not more, focused on than the health of the body. I think that could potentially be problematic, but focusing on spiritual health might indirectly improve the spiritual health of patients. I heard that women nurses were discriminated against, even in the nursing field. I feel bad about that, but I am happy with the progress that has been made since then.