Evolution of Nursing: From Saint Fabiola to the 21st Century

Since its beginning in prehistoric times the basis of nursing has undergone many changes and continues to change and develop today. Saint Fabiola, if applying to the hospital today, would have to face many differences in the nursing profession. Several of these changes deal with education, sanitation requirements, demographics, and the overall role nurses play in medicine. To better understand these differences in nursing, it is best to look at the development of nursing through the years to help understand the challenges Fabiola may face entering nursing in the 21st century. The profession of nursing during the time of Saint Fabiola centered around works of mercy. Christ and his disciples had paved the way for a nursing profession in which people performed acts of kindness without expecting anything in return. Many times, it was women of higher class positions who served as matrons for the sick in their community. It was men who often acted as physicians and in case of war, monks and Christian knights provided care for the soldiers (Cherry and Jacob, pg. 7). There was little

As it was shown in the film Lone Star Nurse, nurses are there to not only treat the illness, but to treat the whole person. In Saint Fabiola’s time, matrons would go house to house treating the sick (Cherry and Jacob, pg. 6). Now we have a much more developed healthcare system with primary care physicians, mental health facilities, and all other types of specialties to treat the whole person. Nurses like Nicole Schroeder working in the Nurse-Family Partnership not only help these first-time mothers with their newborns’ health, but also act as a positive role model and friend (Lone Star Nurse). Nurses today can also go into specialized fields for which they are passionate about. These specialized fields may require extra training like seen in the video Nursing and the Older