Bringing Change With Care and Compassion

The often overlooked group of health care professional are the nurses. A nurse is a person whose job is to take care of the sick or injured people and in the present context besides caring for patients they have also taken the role to assist doctors, monitor, administer medicine and most importantly also give support and comfort to the sick; they help people.

Nursing care dates back to the time of the Roman Empire when it tried to place a hospital within every town under its rule.  During the later history nursing was more associated with religion and with the spread of Roman Catholicism across Europe and the world, since monasteries also started housing hospitals. It was the monks and the nuns of those days who were engaged in nursing.  

During the late 8th and early 9th centuries, it was Emperor Charlemagne who decreed to restore all the hospitals that had fallen in decay and he further ordered that a hospital should be attached to each cathedral and monastery. The need for nurses increased manifold.

The introduction of Modern Nursing is attributed to Florence Nightingale. Her works during the Crimean war (1853-1856) with aid from the British Empire is considered as the dawn of Modern Nursing. Her work of compassion, commitment to patient care, diligent and thoughtful hospital administration was a pioneering work and later in 1860 the Nightingale school for Nurses was founded. 

At present all nurses take the Nurses Pledge based on the Florence Nightingale Pledge as a tribute to her during their pinning ceremonies when they complete their courses. 
Before God and those assembled here, 
I solemnly pledge;
To adhere to the code of ethics of the nursing profession;

To co-operate faithfully with the other members of the nursing team and to carry out faithfully and to the best of my ability the instructions of the physician or the nurse who may be assigned to supervise my work;
I will not do anything evil or malicious and I will not knowingly give any harmful drug or assist in malpractice.
I will not reveal any confidential information that may come to my knowledge in the course of my work.
And I pledge myself to do all in my power to raise the standards and prestige of the practical nursing;
May my life be devoted to service and to the high ideals of the nursing profession

Every year on May12 nurses around the world under the aegis of International Council of Nurses observe the International Nurses Day. This year the theme is “A Force for Change: Improving Health Systems’ Resilience”.  The focus is on improving the capacity of the health systems to recover from difficulties and the role of the nurses to achieve it. It also takes in to account the lessons learnt from the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and to achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals.