Our nurses play a vital role in providing the best healthcare. They help in keeping communities safe and healthy.
Nurses are also educators and mentors who guide other people who want to pursue nursing as a career.
Aside from being on-call 24/7, they’re not just in hospitals, they’re also in barangay centers, schools, offices, and even in factories, to attend to people who need care in case of emergencies or accidents.
If you are curious about this profession, here are some interesting facts you probably didn’t know about.
First Nurse School
The first nursing school was established in India and dates back as far as 250 B.C.
The school only allowed men to attend because they were considered more “pure” compared to women.
It remained dominated by men until the mid 1800s.
In recent years, statistics show that there are more women in the field than when it started in India.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is often called ‘The Lady of the Lamp,” who pioneered modern nursing in the midst of war.
Florence used her knowledge in math and statistics to help explain the impact of certain factors like cleanliness in mortality rates, specifically during the Crimean War in the 1850s.
She made it her mission to improve hygiene practices and death rates in hospitals significantly decreased in the process.
Nurse Cap
Did you know that the nurse’s cap is patterned after the nun’s habit?
The purpose of this was to keep the hair neatly in place and give the nurses a modest appearance.
The nursing cap is a widely recognized symbol of nursing.
Some countries still use this as part of the female nurses’ uniform but some also regarded the cap as a potential carrier of pathogens that cause diseases.
Nurses walk about 4 miles during a shift
In a 2006 study, it was found out that nurses walk on average 4 miles a day
The study published in MEDSURG Nursing found that the 146 nurses studied walked an average of 4-5 miles during a 12-hour shift.
While most people walk just 2.5-3 miles during the course of an 18-hour day.
Today, nurses were found out that they still walk nearly four to five miles every 12-hour shift, double the distance of other professions.
Filipino Nurses
According to a 2018 article from the Philippine News Agency, Filipino nurses were recognized for their contribution to global health.
The article also said the Philippines is the largest exporter of nurses globally, with roughly 25 percent of all overseas nurses worldwide.
About 85 percent of employed Filipino nurses work in more than 50 countries.
Did you also know that at the turn of the 21st century, the Philippines became the single largest source of foreign nurses in the United States?
Thank you to our nurses for doing their best to provide quality health care! Let us know what you think about this topic in the comment section of this video. /bmjo
