National Nurses Week: A Look Back at Notable Nurses

18/05/10 12:13 AM

When you think of fame and fortune, nursing is not the first profession that comes to mind.  For one thing, it is not a career that lends itself to grandstanding or public attention.  Most people who enter the nursing profession do it because of a deep-seated desire to help others in need, rather than advance their own interests.  Further, it does not tend to be a field in which one gains notoriety, even if they are the best at what they do (unlike, say, doctors, who can expect a higher salary and a waiting list of wealthy patients if they are the top in their area of expertise).  So let’s take a look back at some of the great nurses in history and what put them in the pages of history.

1.      Florence Nightingale – no surprise here…some of you may have even heard of her.  Also known as “The Lady with the Lamp” (for checking up on injured soldiers throughout the night), she became famous for her humanitarian efforts with the poor as well as her endeavor to pioneer a new health care system for the British military.  She spurned her aristocratic family and a married life in order to pursue a career in the noble art of nursing.  Appropriately, International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday, May 12th.

2.      Clara Barton – she is best known as the founder of the Red Cross.  She began her illustrious career in nursing at the tender age of eleven, caring for her injured brother, and went on to work in the battlefields of the Civil War.  She was a noted patriot and advocate of both the women’s suffrage movement and black civil rights.  After lecturing abroad about her wartime experiences, she returned to the United States and convinced President James Garfield to support her movement to form the American Red Cross for the purpose of managing any type of mass medical crisis, not just those found in wartime.  She became the first president of the newly found American Red Cross in 1881 and subsequently traveled to Istanbul, Beijing, Cuba, and several other countries to open hospitals and aid humanitarian efforts.

3.      Mary Eliza Mahoney – she is noted as the first African-American professional registered nurse and she paved the way for women of color in the nursing profession.  In 1908, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), which later merged with the American Nurses Association (ANA).  The Mary Mahoney award, offered biennially, is given out by the ANA in her honor for significant contributions to race relations, namely in the field of nursing.

Sadly, not all nurses are good and kind. Some of them twist and pervert their noble code to suit their own aberrant interests.  Here are a few notable nurses who give an example of what to look out for when seeking a nursing professional.

1.      Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest, 1975)– she represents all that could go wrong in nursing.  She is a tyrannical bully who lords her power over her patients by withholding medication and other sundries as well as famously lobotomizing the only one who challenges her power.  The American Film Institute voted her the fifth worst movie villain of all time, and it’s easy to see why.  It took a good, long choke to knock this naughty nurse down a peg.

2.      Sam Lockwood (Awake, 2007) – she may be pretty, but beware the siren song.  She reels in successful businessman Clay Beresford with the intention of killing him to claim the insurance money (to cover a previous malpractice suit, no less).  She has definitely gotten the wrong idea when it comes to bedside manner.

3.      Beverley Allitt (this one is real!) – a British pediatric nurse, she became known as the “Angel of Death” after attacking 13 children in her care over a 15-day period.  Four died and five others were seriously injured due to smothering or injections of insulin or potassium chloride to bring about cardiac arrest.  She was convicted in nine cases and sentenced to life imprisonment.  She stands to be released in 2022 at the age of 54, but only if she is deemed to pose no threat to the public, which seems unlikely.  She crazy.

But for every bad nurse out there (and let’s be honest, most of those catapulted to fame are fictional characters), you can find thousands that love what they do and sincerely want to help their patients.  So during National Nurses Week, think of something nice a nurse has done for you and consider sending her a little thank you.  After all, not every nurse requires fame and fortune, but they could use a little recognition.

Posted by Heather | in Nursing | No Comments »

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