Florence Nightingale's vision of nursing as a distinct profession

Nursing

When Florence Nightingale noted that nurses, not doctors, should teach nursing she emphasized the uniqueness of the profession. Nursing is not a watered-down version of doctoring. Nor is nursing practice something doctors learn in medical school. It is a nurse, not a doctor, who sits by the patient's bedside. It is a nurse, not a doctor, who helps patients bathe, read, and eat while they heal. Doctors and nurses provide wholly different services to patients. Their professions are related and ancillary but they are not so similar to render doctors able to teach nurses how to practice the art and science of caring. Therefore, only a nurse knows how to counsel and mentor other aspiring caring professionals.

Nightingale knew this, which is why she remains one of the most important figures in the history of the profession. Florence Nightingale may have in fact given birth to nursing as a professional enterprise: defining it in contrast to what physicians do. Physicians have long overshadowed nurses in part because they make more money and earn more social status. However, their medical training in no way prepares doctors for what nurses provide to patients. Nurses are called to their profession because of an innate desire to nurture and care for others. In contrast, doctors might be able to care but are not required to. Their job centers on effective praxis rooted in science. A nurse's job demands a caring attitude and an effective means to deliver the best quality of care.