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When one thinks of the history of nursing education, many immediately think of Florence Nightingale. However, nursing goes even further. Indeed, during the 18th century a slave named James Derham was able to buy his own freedom with the money he earned as a nurse. No one knew then that a nursing education could be obtained in any other way than simply through an apprenticeship. But today there are many ways to study and learn more about nursing. Great examples of these are online nursing education and continuing nursing education.
But it took a long time for these nursing programs to develop. And they are the descendants of the first nursing program established in 1850 in London. Japan’s first nursing institution was established in 1885, and the first black nursing institution in the United States followed the next year. The field of nursing was growing rapidly with the influence of individuals such as Florence Nightingale and Claray Barton who founded the Red Cross.
In the late 1800s the idea of visiting nursing was established by Lillian Wald and she began to teach a home nursing course. The American Nurses Association held its first meeting and the topics discussed helped improve nursing education. Nurses began to be regulated on a national basis from New Zealand in 1901 and then other countries around the world began to follow suit.
The first nursing education established in the United States based on education rather than the needs of hospitals was at Yale University in 1923. The Yale School of Nursing had its own curriculum and students had to meet the university’s educational standards to graduate. This really set the stage for the future of education and since then universities across the nation have been developing their own nursing programs. Then, in the 1950s, the University of Colombia offered a master’s degree in nursing and was the first university to do so. This has really changed the nursing environment and enabled continuing nursing education and nurses to grow into their chosen profession.
Now, more than 80 years later, nursing education is available on college campuses, through online courses, and even through continuing nursing education. Men and women who want to become nurses can do so on their own schedule and take advantage of all the study options for this amazing profession. There are many choices when it comes to online nursing education and prospective nurses should really compare all programs to make sure they are studying from the best online university and learning as much about nursing as possible.