NURS FPX6103 Assessment1 The History of Nursing Education

When nursing schools were first founded in the United States in the early 20th century, the nurse educator position began to take on a lengthy history. The responsibility of nurse educators at the time was to instruct and educate future nurses. The function of a nurse educator has expanded throughout time to include a wider variety of duties, including curriculum creation, program assessment, and research. Today, nurse educators must also ensure that nursing students are ready to tackle the challenges of a healthcare environment undergoing fast change.

The nurse educator’s job will continue to be crucial to advancing nursing as we look to the future. Nurse educators must change and adopt new pedagogical strategies as the healthcare sector grows more complicated and technology develops. Incorporating cutting-edge technology like virtual reality and other ones into nursing courses is one way to do this. Another is to introduce new subjects like genomics and customized medicine. To ensure that nursing education programs align with the healthcare system’s demands and that nursing graduates are ready to face the difficulties of a quickly changing healthcare environment, nurse educators must also engage closely with healthcare providers and policymakers (Duncan et al., 2020).

Five Historical Influences on Nursing

Several notable historical impacts on nursing and nursing education have shaped the field into what it is now. Florence Nightingale, primarily regarded as the father of modern nursing, was one of the key influencers. Nursing was mainly uncontrolled and untrained until Nightingale’s efforts during the Crimean War in the middle of the 19th century converted it into a respectable profession with a solid scientific foundation. Her work inspired contemporary nursing education since it stressed the need for cleanliness and hygiene to halt the spread of illness (Alligood, 2021).