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Nursing Practice in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

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Submitted By astomasello
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The profession of professional nursing has made many changes in the past half century and is expected to make many more by the middle of the twenty first century. These changes range from more technically challenging work both in and outside of the hospital, increasingly more complex patients, the need for critical thinking skills and the explosion of technology related to healthcare. Educational emphasis has evolved since the mid 20th century and will become increasingly more vital as the profession moves to the future. With all these changes in nursing the basics are still there; patient centered care, empathy, providing Maslow’s basic needs. During the Second World War the practice of nursing changed (Morgan, 1998). Nurses were no longer confined to the hospital, “they were really at the patient’s bedside, making their own choices based on their own clinical judgment and dealing with the consequences. They were discovering that’s what nursing is all about” (Morgan, 1998). Health care priorities also moved from the health of the community to the health and well being of the individual (Klainberg, 2010). Post Second World War also saw the ability of global travel. Air travel expanded and traveling from continent to continent in a day was becoming more feasible. With that comes the risk of spreading infectious diseases more easily. With that, fortunately, the discoveries of new and more effective antibiotics were taking off in the healthcare system. (Klainberg, 2010). During the 1960’s ICU’s were created where the best nurses took care of the sickest patients. Nursing was moving forward with independent thinking and specialization of nursing care modalities. By the close of the twentieth century nursing practice was becoming more technical and more complex, with an aging patient population and advances in medicine nurses have a higher expectation

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