Student Nurse Reflective Journal

  What I Learned: This biggest thing I learned about this week was that Florence Nightingale created the first Nursing School! That is very notable. She also did much to increase cleanliness and prevent the spread of disease through cleanliness. From my peers in the Historical discussion, I learned that women had very different roles compared to men in the nursing profession. Men worked in hospitals and did more medical type interventions. Women nurses did more of the cleaning, feeding, and other similar chores. I also learned from them that the Civil War was a great catalyst in the evolution of nursing into becoming what it is today. Because of the increasing needs the war caused, nursing evolved in order to adapt to these needs. How I Will Utilize the Things I Learned Into My Nursing Practice: I will utilize what I learned by staying grateful for the opportunity to have gone to nursing school and the now professional stays of nursing. I will practice cleanliness and remember it’s imp

  1. What I learned about the time period being studied. I learned a ton this week, especially since we had to watch the Florence Nightingale movie. I learned from my article about the Institution of Nursing Sisters founded by Elizabeth Fry. I learned from my teammates about the importance of compassion in nursing care. I got thinking about how your patients probably won’t recognize you as being a good nurse by how well you do nursing skills, but they will always remember if you were kind or not. I also learned from my teammates about the importance of spirituality in nursing. The Institution of Nursing Sisters were all catholic. They didn’t push their religion onto people, but made sure people were taken care of spiritually as well as physically. From the movie we watched, I learned to try to make good changes and to be a better leader and more confident like Florence Nightingale. I also was reminded just how important cleanliness is and that “cleanliness is close to godliness.” 2. H

1. What I learned about the time period being studied. It was kind of hard to find information on this time period in regards to nursing, but I was still able to learn a bit! From my literature search I found an article that touched on what nursing was like during the early 1800s. It was mostly domestic duties and chores. Nurses did little healthcare related work until the late 1800s. I learned that what made nursing evolve into what it is today was the American Civil War. From my classmate’s articles, I learned about some of the notable nurses following this time period. I learned that what made them notable were their values and kindness. I also learned that the Benevolent Society of Charleston in North Carolina was the first home health group. There were also asylums during this time period. One was called the Friends Asylum. 2. How I will utilize the information learned in my nursing practice. It’s really interesting that nursing started out so informal and had more of the duties o