Knowledge of the foundations and history of nursing helps to provide nurses with an understanding of how nursing became established, how current practices were put into place and became effective, and enables you to see the significant changes that were taking place to make nursing into a profession.

According to the “Nursing Timeline of Historical Events,” it was interesting to find out that nursing started being performed by people who were considered to be uneducated, unaccepted, and lower class. In comparing nursing to to now, it has become a profession that requires a lot to become licensed to practice. It has a very intense curriculum, skills training, and requires testing in order to become licensed to practice.
There have been so many changes within the nursing profession and continue to change daily. Some of the changes on the “Nursing Timeline of Historical Events” and current practices today include changes in education, uniforms, and technology. As far as education, nursing was once completed by people who were uneducated and now the requirement is to receive minimum an associate degree and pass a licensure exam. Nurses are also held responsible to practice with certain standards of care. The uniforms have also changed. On the timeline, you notice that nurses had on dresses, mostly all white, and they also wore hat covering their hair. In today’s profession, nurses where all colors, no hats, and also majority of female nurses wear pants. Technologies within the medical field are always advancing. In comparison to the equipment the used to perform their jobs and the equipment we have today to use in our practice, it is a very big