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Nursing education has drastically, over time, had to respond to the transformative nature of the nursing profession. The field has changed since the early 1800s from an extension of the caretaking role to a critical profession in clinical practice. Modern-day nursing requires nurses to have formal education and certification.
Formal nursing education began in the late 1800s when events such as the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War emphasized the importance of formally trained nurses caring for patients. In the Civil War, roughly 2000 untrained females cared for wounded soldiers (Keating, 2017). Due to their lack of training and poor hygiene during the wars, many soldiers died. This revealed the need for formal nursing training. Florence Nightingale is the mother of modern nursing practice. Accordingly, she developed a nursing education model which has existed for many years. This model highlighted the need for nursing schools to remain independent without the supervision of affiliated practice hospitals (Keating, 2017). The focus should be on education and not service to the hospital. This model was used to open several nursing hospitals, such as Bellevue Training School.
World war I and II highlighted the need for formal nursing education. The entry of the US into the first world war increased the admission into nursing schools by 25% (Keating, 2017). The establishment of the Army School of Nursing and the Vassar Training Camp impacted nursing education during the first world war. Subsequently, during the second world war, many nurses were needed in the military. In 1943, the United States Congress legislated the Bolton Act that formed the Cadet Nurse Corps. This was to avoid the collapse of civilian hospitals, offer nursing education in the military, and ensure the necessary nursing education for cadet students (Keating, 2017).
In the 1950s, associate degree programs were developed because of community colleges’ interest in nursing education. However, the nursing education situation in community colleges and the American Nurses Association (ANA) proposal that nursing should be taught in universities resulted in a turbulent time in nursing education (Keating, 2017). In the late 20th century, graduate nursing education was established, and many nurses enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs.
The first trend is online nursing training. The Covid-19 pandemic showed the importance of online training in nursing (Dewart et al., 2020). Online education has motivated more nurses to pursue higher education. Through online education, nurses can obtain a higher degree while working full-time. Nurses can now further their education without sacrificing family obligations or work-related duties. The shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs) will create a greater demand for family nurse practitioners (FNPs). Accordingly, recent research has revealed that by 2032, the US will face a primary care physician shortage due to an aging population (Zhang et al., 2020). This will increase the demand for FNPs in states with full practice authority for FNPs. Training of more FNPs will thus be necessary. A third trend is that many states will grant advanced practice nurse practitioners full practice authority (APRNs). Due to the forecasted PCP shortage in the next decade, many states will have to grant full practice authority to APRNs. Only 27 states in the United States have full practice authority for APRNs (Brom et al., 2018).
Nursing education has evolved over the years. The key events that led to the evolution include the Civil War, Industrial Revolution, Crimean War, World War I, and II. Nurses are now important clinical team players who significantly impact patient care.
Brom, H. M., Salsberry, P. J., & Graham, M. C. (2018). Leveraging health care reform to accelerate nurse practitioner full practice authority. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(3), 120-130. https://doi.org/10.1097/jxx.0000000000000023
Dewart, G., Corcoran, L., Thirsk, L., & Petrovic, K. (2020). Nursing education in a pandemic: Academic challenges in response to COVID-19. Nurse Education Today, 92, 104471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104471
Keating, S. B. (2017). Curriculum developme
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