The Sunday Mail
Health Chat with Everisto Mapfidze
During the early years of the Christian Church (circa 50 C.E.), St Paul sent a deaconess Phoebe to Rome as the first visiting nurse.
Christianity encouraged its devotees to tend to the sick.
From the earliest times, most cultures produced a stream of nurses dedicated to service on religious principles. Both Christendom and the Muslim world generated a stream of dedicated nurses from the earliest days.
In the early 7th century, Rufaidah bin Sa’ad became what is now described as the first Muslim nurse.
A contemporary of Muhammad who led a group of women to treat injured fighters on the battlefield, Muhammad gave Rufaidah permission to set up tent near the Medina Mosque to provide treatment and care for the ill and the needy.
The Eastern Orthodox Church had established many hospitals in the Middle East, but following the rise of Islam from the 7th century, Arabic medicine developed in this region. Arab ideas were later influential in Europe.
The Crimean War – a military conflict between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire (made up of France, Britain and Sardinia) which was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 was significant development in nursing history.
It was during this battle when English nurse, Florence Nightingale, laid the foundations of professional nursing.
In 1860, the training of the first batch of nurses began. These nurses used to be called Nightingales. Nightingale defied the expectations of the time and pursued what she saw as her God-given calling of nursing.
From a young age, Nightingale was active in philanthropy, ministering to the ill and poor people in the village neighbouring her family estate.
Despite her family objections, Nightingale eventually enrolled as a nursing student in 1850 at the institution of Protestant Deaconess in Kaiserwerth, Germany.
Florence (1820-1910) grew up in a wealthier family, with a very broad education. When she saw people suffering, with her upbringing, she felt bad for them and wanted to help them out.
She travelled the world, learning the best and most effective ways to help treat the sick.
Nightingale believed that pure water, pure air, efficient draining, cleanliness, and light were the five things a person needed to stay healthy. Without them, one would be equally as unhealthy.
During the Crimean War, she and a team of nurses improved the unsanitary conditions at a British base hospital, greatly reducing the death count. She won the Royal Red Cross Medal for her exceptional services and devotion to duty.
Nightingale was a spinster.
She turned down overtures for marriage from prominent men of stature. She did not entertain anything that would hinder her calling to nurse the poor.
Nursing of today is occupied by practitioners of diverse social, economic, cultural and religious backgrounds.
To become a nurse today, one must complete either a diploma in nursing, or a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Nursing practice is the actual provision of nursing care.
According to a survey report of American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), nursing is one of the largest healthcare professions with more than 3,1 million nurses and 2,6 million registered nurses (RNs) across the world.
The nursing industry, however, has to counter numerous legal, ethical, and moral issues in the world of healthcare. It is a demanding profession that requires a lot of dedication and commitment.
Nurses face challenges like poor remuneration, workplace violence, short staffing, and long working hours.
Nurse compensation, improved staffing ratios and safe workplaces are critical in returning to the heyday of the Nightingales.
Caring is the essence of nursing.
One’s success in nursing profession is not determined by how much theoretical knowledge a nurse possesses, but how resilient one applies everything learned, and that includes the principle of caring.
Bruce Lee opined that knowing is not enough but we must apply.
There is need to apply the nursing of Florence Nightingale, which was a desire and a calling.
Yet today’s nursing seems to be driven more by monetary and capital gains, hence the endless confrontations between the medical practitioners and Government.
Incessant industrial actions by nurses and doctors have often crippled the health sector, leaving desperate patients, most of them in remote Zimbabwean rural areas, in danger of losing their lives.
Henceforth, there is need to revamp the nursing curriculum so that it suits the needs of the poor population, who are continuously being short-changed by threats of industrial action and the incessant flexible duties that have since become a permanent feature in the Zimbabwe health delivery system.
There is also need to keep these medical practitioners motivated, especially in an environment where the cost of living is soaring.
A balance has to be struck, albeit reasonably.
Government has a major role to play in the provision of safe water, pure air, efficient drainage, light and cleanliness.
On the other hand, the 21st century nurse ought to revisit classical nursing principles which illustrated the religious role of nursing.
Nightingale must be rolling in her grave owing to the transgression of the nursing discourse she founded on the principles of commitment and dedication.
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