Military Nursing
The connection between nursing and the military was in earlier centuries. Extra-familial nursing provision was most commonly provided by volunteers with little or no training, usually by men and women belonging to monastic orders, or by laypersons associated with them. However, during the Crusades certain military monastic orders were established which also provided nursing care. Most notable among these orders were the Knights Hospitallers, who were also known as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Our Knights were the first to separate ill patients in separate beds, serve water in silver goblets, regularly wash and change bed sheets and blankets, and other time honored methods of hygiene. In post-Reformation Europe the role of nurse, with its close association with the dead and the dying, was unfortunately regarded as a low-status occupation.
Modern nursing practice began in the mid-19th century. The German pastor Theodor Fliedner began one of the first formal training programmes for nurses in 1836, at Kaiserswerth, for the Order of Protestant Deaconesses. While other religious orders provided formalized nurse training in 19th-century Europe, Fliedner's school remains notable for having trained Florence Nightingale, Britain's most noteworthy nursing reformer. Kaiserswerth provided her with the impetus to organize proper nursing care during the Crimean war and to later establish a nurse training programme at London's St. Thomas's Hospital. The Nightingale Training Schools for nurses and their founder's reputation, based on the battlefields of the Crimea, transformed the nurse's status and provided the foundation upon which the modern profession has been built.
The Nursing Pin
The Nursing Pin was the original maltese cross worn by this Order on the battlefieds of Palestine. The symbolism of the pin was adopted by Florence Nightingale's school of nursing. Later, the Red Cross adopted the arm badge as a symbol care for the sick and became part of the Geneva Conventions for neutrality in conflict. The cross also became symbols for many groups including the United States Cadet Nurse Corps.
Florence Nightingale Pledge
I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and
to practise my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will
not take, or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to elevate the standards of
my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family
affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of calling. With loyalty I will endeavour to aid the physician in his work and to devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.