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National Nursing Assistant Day - Celebrating Those Who Care For Our Loved Ones
By Shane Addinall Jun 18, 2020As we celebrate National Nursing Assistant Day, showing our appreciation for those who care for our loved ones, we will take a look at 6 historical caregivers and the impact they made in nursing, desegregation and mental healthcare.If the current state of the world has brought anything into sharp relief it is the value of the doctors, nurses and nursing assistants who put their lives on the line on a daily basis. These are individuals who are devoted to caring for those in need and deserve a salute of respect for their selfless sacrifice.
To honour our nursing assistants here is a look at 6 carers who devoted their lives helping the wounded, people of colour, the mentally ill and anyone else in need of care:
1. Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is one of the world most instantly recognisable names when it comes to nursing. She was an English social reformer whom history has dubbed the “Mother of Modern Nursing” for her impeccable care and devotion to nursing standards and wounded soldiers.
During the Crimean War, which raged from October 1853 to February 1856, she transitioned from nursing trainer and manager to the fabled “Lady of the Lamp” for her nightly rounds amongst the wounded soldiers.
Through her St. Thomas-based nursing school in London, she set the foundation of what we see as the professional role of nursing in the world today. To honour her contribution to the world the Eighth International Conference of Red Cross Societies created a commemorative International Nightingale Medal.
The medal is bestowed on those who carry her spirit by distinguishing themselves in the field of nursing care.
2. Mabel Keaton Staupers
As an immigrant from the West Indies to the United States of America in 1903, Mabel Keaton Staupers faced racial discrimination and segregation from an early age. Passionate about caring for the hurting she graduated from the Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing in 1917.
Having worked as a private duty nurse she had a strong desire to assist in her field of expertise during World War 2 but was prevented from doing so due to the segregation of the military's nursing corps.
As the executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), she fought to end racial prejudice in nursing, stating: "Black nurses recognize that service to their country is a responsibility of citizenship."
She was successful in establishing the Booker T. Washington Sanatorium, an in-patient centre which focused on providing African American men, women and children with quality tuberculosis care.
3. Clara Barton
Clarissa (Clara) Harlowe Barton was a strong woman with a deep-seated drive to tend to the wounded from a young age. Her love of nursing is said to have come to life as she tended to her younger brother who fell from the family barn.
Despite a lack of no formal nursing education, Clara provided her self-taught care to wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. Her years of treating soldiers (often while under fire), preparing them meals and travelling the length and breadth of American assisting families track down lost loved one earned her the honorific of “Angel of the Battlefield”.
Touched by the need for news of loved ones from the battlefront and the need for both medical supplies and care Clara founded the American branch of the Red Cross.
For her strength and determination in fighting for civil rights and the founding of the Red Cross Clara was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973.
4. Mary Eliza Mahoney
Mary Eliza Mahoney was at the forefront of the struggle for Black women to be allowed to enter the world of registered nursing. In 1871 she became the first African-American registered nurse to graduate from an American nursing educational institution.
The New England Hospital for Women and Children was one of the first institutions to offer a formal program that allowed women to study towards a career in healthcare. Out of a class of forty students only Mary and two other women, both white, would go on to receive their nursing degree.
Mary would also work alongside the founders of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), becoming not only a speaker at their events but also receiving a lifetime membership and fulfilling the role of chaplain for the organisation.
In addition to campaigning for racial desegregation, she was also a supporter of women's suffrage. In 1920 Mary was one of the first women in Boston to register to vote in celebration of suffrage being achieved in America.
5. Dorothea Dix
The heart of a caregiver does not always manifest in pure nursing terms, as is the case with Dorothea Dix. While she served as the Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War and received commendations for her work there it was her work in the field of mental illness that is her greatest achievement.
During a bout of ill health Dorothea suffered a mental breakdown which resulted in her travelling to Europe to recover. It was during this period where she met social reformers who inspired her to take charge of her life and health, as well as visiting a Turkish mental health institution which would become her template for future American mental asylums.
She travelled across American documenting the subhuman treatment of the mentally ill and uncovered how they are open to abuse in a memorial for the New Jersey Legislature. She petitioned for the mentally ill to be treated with modesty, delicacy and chastity, rather than the “looney paupers” which they were deemed to be at the time.
Without her rigorous discourse on the matter of mental health and her drive to create safe medically sound institutions specifically for the care and support of the mentally ill we would not have the facilities and policies we benefit from today.
6. Mother Teresa
If ever there was a person whose very name resonated with caring for the hurting and loving the needy it is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Macedonia, 1910, she took the name Mary Teresa when she became a Roman Catholic nun.
With a heart that yearned to help others, she founded the religious congregation known as the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.
She outlined the intent of the Missionaries of Charity as:
“Caring for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone"
Over the years this congregation has grown to more than 4500 nuns in 133 countries and runs homes dedicated to serving terminal sufferers of HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis.
Personally, she was called to serve the poor and destitute of Calcutta. During this time, she received what she referred to as the “call within the call", which would lead her to leave the convent and live amongst the very people she was serving.
This connection to those around her on both a physical level and a spiritual one would be the driving force behind her nearly 50 years of service. During her years of service, she would come to operate more than 500 missions in over 100 countries, with thousands of weak and sick coming to know the comfort of her touch and the peace of her prayers.
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nurses nursing assistant day florence nightingale mother teresa dorothea dix mabel keaton staupers clara barton mary eliza mahoney healthcare mental illness
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