Reporting on our winter event are JOANNE KERR (Chair) and MONICA HAGGART from the RCN Primary Care Education Steering Group.
Back to the future?
RCN History of Nursing Society Seminar • 14 November 2008
In relation to this country's current economic woes, it has been said that we don't learn from history. Similar things have happened before and we are not critically aware enough of history to learn from those events. However, this cannot be said of nursing if we take the opportunities offered to explore our own history and evaluate its relevance for us today.
This became obvious to us at the Society's 2008 seminar in Cavendish Square. We both presented at this conference and gained a lot from the experience ourselves.
An early discussion on, respectively, ethics from Reverend Tom Keighley and spirituality from Reverend Professor Stephen Wright set the tone as we explored past and present nursing issues.
Caring is the lifeblood of nursing
For us a key issue to arise from the day was the notion of "caring" and how this may be in danger of becoming marginalised in the new world of nursing where care is broken down into measurable blocks which somehow lack the lifeblood that should run through them all - that is, caring.
The presentations were varied and gave a different perspective of how nurse education has shaped people and their values. This is something that we, as nurses, need to learn. It could be said that history has an important role in shaping the nurses of the future. We may have lost something in the developments and changes over the last 20 years, but history may well be the key that re-opens the door to the notion of caring.