When people think of the history of nursing education, many immediately think of Florence Nightingale. However, nursing goes back even further. In fact, during the 18th century, a slave named James Derby was able to buy his own freedom with the money he earned as a nurse. Back then, no one knew that a nursing education could be obtained in any other way than simply through an apprenticeship. But, today there are many ways to study and learn more about nursing. Great examples of these are online nursing education and continuing nursing education.
However, it took a long time to develop these nursing programs. And they are descendants of the first nursing program that was established in the 1850s in London. Japan’s first nursing institute was established in 1885 and the first black nursing institute in the United States followed the following year. The field of nursing was growing rapidly with the influence of people like Florence Nightingale and Claray Barton, who established the Red Cross.
In the late 1800s, Lillian Wald established the idea of visiting nursing and began teaching a home nursing class. The American Nurses Association held its first meeting and the topics discussed helped advance nursing education. Nurses began to be regulated nationally by New Zealand in 1901 and then other countries around the world began to follow suit.
The first nursing education to be established in the United States on the basis of education rather than the needs of hospitals was at Yale University in 1923. The Yale School of Nursing had its own curriculum and students they had to meet the educational standards of the university. to graduate. This really laid the foundation for the future of education, and since then, universities across the country have developed their own nursing programs. Then, in the 1950s, Columbia University offered a master’s degree in nursing and was the first university to do so. This really changed the nursing environment and allowed for continuing nursing education and nurses to grow in their chosen profession.
Now, more than 80 years later, nursing education is available on college campuses, through online courses, and even through continuing nursing education. Men and women who want to become a nurse can do so on their schedule and take advantage of all the study options for this amazing profession. There are many options when it comes to online nursing education and future nurses should really compare all programs to make sure they are studying at the best online university and learning as much about nursing as possible.