Undoubtedly, nurses are meant to touch lives. The profession itself demands a compassionate and sensitive soul to deal with the everyday pain the patients go through. Sometimes, nurses may end up with tiring and weird kind of schedules that break the threshold of their bear-ability.
However, history itself is a witness of the fact that nurses influence lives. They go beyond the profession and touch the world as a whole. Notably, nurses have served in several areas of healthcare. From serving their soul in wars to breaking down racial barriers, they’ve done it all. In fact, nursing becomes an altogether respectable profession when it’s connected to such big names.
Down here, we’ve listed the 7 most inspirational nurses who changed the entire spectrum of patient care services across the world.
Margaret Sanger
She was the epitome of spreading knowledge about birth control and family planning. Margaret Sanger is known to pioneer the women’s health movement. She took a step forward and imparted knowledge about birth control with the help of pamphlets that she distributed. That’s what she is best known as- an activist for birth control and family planning. She did not shy away from writing on topics such as menstruation and sexuality. After all, it was all about awaking the public.
Claire Bertschinger
During the time when the famine in Ethiopia was highly publicized, Claire Bertschinger worked for the International Red Cross. She has worked in many places such as Panama, Lebanon, and Papua New Guinea along with Ethiopia. She tried to feed all with a number of children’s feeding centers. However, she was not always able to do so. A lady with awards like Florence Nightingale Medal, the Woman of the Year Award, and the Human Rights in Nursing Award, is surely worth the inspiration and worth the respect, the nursing profession shall get.
Mabel Keaton Staupers
Not many people are able to pull off an issue like racial equality as gracefully as this woman did. Mabel Keaton Staupers served as the secretary of the National Associated of Graduate Colored Nurses. She was an advocate for racial equality in the realm of the nursing profession. Because of her advocacy skills, she managed to let all the nurses, regardless their race, to get included in the military. She fought racial discrimination for the African American nurses to get them their equal rights to serve the army and navy. She won! Moreover, so did the whole of the nursing fraternity.
Linda Richards
Linda Richards, after receiving a little training, she was the first student enrolled in the first American Nurse’s training school and started her career at Bellevue Hospital, New York. She was the one who developed a system to track individual records of every patient in the hospital. Her work was readily adopted by both the US and the UK. The American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools was established by her and in the year 1994, she was honored with the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Florence Nightingale
A motherly-figure, this exemplary nurse cared for the poor compassionately and advocated for improving and providing better medical facilities for everyone. Florence Nightingale trained and mentored other nurses to work in other hospitals as well as in the Crimean War to care the wounded soldiers. Post war, she wrote Notes on Nursing and started the Women’s Medical College with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. Every year on May 12, her birthday is celebrated as International Nurses Day.
Clara Barton
Truly, an inspiration, Clara Barton used to organize medical supplies for the battlefields during the Civil War and sooner, she was allowed to care for injured soldiers’ right in to the battlefield. She also become the Lady in Charge of Union Hospitals in 1864. She started American Red Cross to help disaster victims and also served as the first president of American Red Cross.
Ellen Dougherty
The first Registered Nurse in the world, Ellen Dougherty from New Zealand trained at the Wellington Hospital and was the matron at Palmerston North Hospital. Moreover, New Zealand became the first country to start the Nurse Registration Act for legal registration of nurses before completing their training.
