Social Factors Leading to Nursing Reforms
Since the beginning of the 19th century, there has been a lot of reforms in the nursing industry. These reforms, for instance, include developing the nursing carrier and not having it as women carriers where initially women were taking care while men were taking charge. Other reforms of the 19th century include improving working conditions and also paying the nurses well (He et al. 56). This is contrary to what was happening before where nurses, especially women, were paid poorly. Also, the reform brought about having personnel with a high level of understanding. The staff are also required to be young and have a certain level of literacy contrary to what was happening before where most of the women were illiterate and also most of them were very old. All these reforms were brought about by several sociological factors.
One of the factors was the growing population. With the ever-increasing population, there was a need to have efficient nurses who had enough knowledge to handle the ever-increasing population. The higher population would mean that there was a need for people who would be able to work very fast (He et al. 56) — having people who would work efficiently and fast enough would help most of the health organizations and hospitals to save a lot of time because just a few people would now do the work that was supposed to be done by a lot of people. Also, this would help the hospitals to save a lot of money that can significantly be used somewhere else or to do other developments in society.
Age was also another crucial social factor that led to the reforms. Before the changes, most of the nurses who were employed to help the doctors do the work were just older women. They were deemed to be more experienced, more careful and more competent than the young nurses. With the reforms, however, this principle was proved wrong. Young people were taken through thorough academic training in the nursing field and they were found to be more productive than older people (Glasper, Alan & Diane, 78). The experience that was learned through classwork and also during internship yielded more fruits than the experience that the old people who existed before the reforms acquired from their life experiences. Young people were seen to grasp a lot of medical truths and facts more quickly than the older adults and this made their training to be so easy and less tiresome than the old people. Young nurses could also do a lot of work than the older adults because, in terms of energy and intellectual capacity, they were far much higher compared to the older women who were taken as nurses before the reforms. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Latest Developments in Nursing in the Modern Society
In modern society today, several latest developments have brought nursing to be where it is today. These developments include continued growth in technology, access to nursing education, collaboration in nursing and improvement in hospital conditions and facilities. To begin with improved technology, there has been the introduction of several new aspects of technology like portable and mobile technologies such as personal digital assistants and also telemedicine, especially in rural areas (Glasper, Alan & Diane, 78). There has also been an introduction to several machines such as ECG machine, Ultrasound and Anesthesia machines. All these have contributed to the growth of technology in nursing.
Access to nursing education has also been made very easy and this is one of the developments. It has been made easy through the availability of online courses like clinical skills for respiratory patients. There has also been a lot of collaboration in nursing, where the nurses collaborate with other nurses and even nonspecialists to achieve the best in the nursing field.
Explanation of What Sociology is About
Sociology is a science that deals with human relationships. It gives a detailed study of a man as a social being and it mainly deals with human societies and social interactions. The different levels of interactions in sociology include interactions between individuals, groups, and societies. It also gives a summary of behavioral patterns of people in varying environments across the world and how these characteristics are passed on from one generation to another and this is achieved through different personal contacts (Wilson, 78). The main assumptions made in explanation to what sociology is about is that humans are social by nature and they are always on the look to make new contacts and interactions with new people and that they live the better part of their lives in a group setting. Also, it is the nature of human beings to influence each other and that human beings are always shaped by the group they are with.
Reasons why Sociology has Been Included as a Core in the Nursing Curricula
Sociology needs to be incorporated in Nursing Curricula because, generally, nursing involves emotional labor. Nursing involves dealing with people that are experiencing tough situations in life, especially health-wise. Some of the conditions include injuries, emotional issues, and diseases. As a nurse, it is essential to know how to deal with all these situations that sometimes can be too emotional. It will involve knowing how to interact with such people and sometimes also their family members and friends from different walks and places (Wilson, 178). It is through sociology, where the nurse can give the family members hope and even encourage the family members that all shall be well.
Sociology also needs to be included in nursing curricula because it helps the nurses to understand the similarities and the differences among different groups of people in relation to age, gender, past experiences, their weaknesses and also their strengths. For even the nurses to work in harmony and unity, there must be a proper distinction between them in terms of sex, age, ranks and even their gender. There should be a well laid out structure in the curricula on how the nurses should interact in workplaces and even what limits are there. Division and specialization of labor in the workplace should also be based on factors such as strengths and weaknesses of the nurses (Van, 67). This subject will also help the nurses to understand that there exist differences between the different patients that they handle in their day to day activities and they should not assume that all the patients are the same in whatever way. This will make their work easier in handling different types of people. The subject will help the nurses to understand the difference that exists between people of varying gender and that there is a certain way that men need to be treated that might probably be different from how ladies or girls may be treated.
Sociology will significantly help the nurses to understand the effects and impacts of cultural and social differences and similarities upon the ways they deal with patients, families and even colleagues. Through in-depth learning of sociology, nurses will be able to understand that most of the patients, their family members and also most of the colleagues that they work with are from a different culture from theirs and there is a way that they should handle them because of the way they view somethings (Van, 65). Some patients depending on their culture, totally believe something different from what the nurse believes in. It is upon the nurse now to know how to change the mind of this particular person and conform his or her beliefs to the scientific view of what the reality is.
Comparison and Contrast the Functionalist and Feminist Perspective on Gender Division of Labor Within the Family in the Modern Society
Contrast
Several differences exist between feminist and functionalist perspectives on the gender division of labor within a family in modern society today. One of the differences is that functionalism believes that society is characterized by peace, harmony, and stability and that, to some extent, there should be nothing to hinder the society from dividing the labor equally without having gender limits. In this perspective or this theory, it is assumed that both men and women can do the same job irrespective of their gender and thus, during the division of labor, any of them can be assigned any task without any problem. Feminism perspective, on the other hand, believes that conflicts between men and women characterize a society. Translating this from the view of gender in this theory, it is believed that during the division of labor, some tasks or some jobs can be done by men while women in a family can do others set up (Levitt, 43). Some duties are assigned to men while some jobs are awarded to women and always in such a scenario, the better tasks are attached to men while the lesser jobs are the ones being awarded to women.
Also, feminist believes that society is a patriarchy where men dominate it, and men have full control of what happens in society and the family. The feminist approach believes that men have a far higher ability to choose which work they can do. On the other hand, women are considered lesser beings and that when it comes to the division of labor, it is men that decide for them what to do and what not to do. Men here dictate for the women what to do and what not to do (Levitt, 43). Mostly it is men that assign the jobs or the duties to the women and that the whole process of division of labor is left on the hands of men.
Another difference is that functionalism believes in a value of consensus whereby different values in the division of labor are achieved through the value of the agreement. This would mean that in any working system, the division of labor is based on what the male and female in that job setup system will agree. During any division of labor process for instance in a family unit, the mother and the father or a male figure and a female figure have to sit down and agree on what they think would be the best job for the females who are there and what will be the best jobs for the males who are there and this is what makes the whole process of the labor division (Levitt, 56). On the other hand, feminism does not believe in consensus. The theorist thinks that these values never exist between the women and that they are just imposed on them. Their opinion during the whole process of division of labor is not that very much important. The males do most of the division and assignment of jobs beginning from the family position and that women are expected to flow with the decision that will be made and that they have nothing much to contribute.
Comparison
One of the similarities between these theories is that in both approaches or perspectives it is believed that women are different from the men and in as much functionalism theory believes that both women and men can do the same work, it is preferred that some jobs or work should be done by women and some to be done by men (Levitt, 98). It is proven that women could be more fruitful in some areas or some occupations than others and that is why during the division of labor, they are assigned to do such particular jobs.
Also, gender division of labor between men and women is regarded as natural, and in both the theories, some jobs are just left automatically for women even though functionalism theory believes that men can get those jobs (Levitt, 12-45). For instance in a family set up, some tasks like babysitting or taking care of babies is deemed to be done more effectively by women compared to men and thus no matter how much functionalism theory will push, at the end of the day they have to come into consensus with feminism theory and agree that women can do some jobs well or more correctly.
The Role of Family in Caregiving
Families play very several roles in providing care for sick people, especially their family members. They assist the sick people with household tasks, self-care, mobility and supervision. There are several household tasks that sick people still need to do and they include things such as shopping, cleaning and maintaining the house chores. If they are unable to do these things, family members always step in to assist them in making their lives comfortable and in making sure that they acquire essential basic needs. Family members do this until the sick people recover entirely and they can o it themselves.
Family members also help the sick by providing both emotional and social support. Due to the ups and downs that these people experience in their lives, they always need both financial and social support (Angel, 65). Someone just to encourage them and tell them that all is going to be well. Emotional care would involve being with the sick person as they are undergoing awkward moments and also advising them. They show and own emotional responses to the changing circumstances of the ill person that require higher-level f emotional support. Through the emotional support, the caregivers who are the family members help to deal with depressive symptoms, anxiety, anger, or irritation due to the disease.
Family members can also provide caregiving services by providing health and medical care to the sick people in their families. There are those kinds of medication that need to be administered at home, and this is a trend that has become very common in modern society (Angel, 45). This is done especially where family members hire professional licensed nurses to take care of their sick people. This is mainly done to shorten the hospitalization period, which in turn will help to reduce the hospital bill. The medications are always administered in the form of injections tablets and also via patches. Their caregiving, in this case, would also include administering good nutritional food to the sick to ensure that they recover from the condition that they are in very quickly.
Implications for Women’s Health Conditions
Sick women who experience family caregiving always have better health than those who do not experience it (Angel, 67). They can cope with situations such as depression, anxiety, anger and irritability when they are under the family caregiving. Also, theses omen experience quick recovery than the rest who do not experience these services. Emotional support has always been critical and mostly, they receive it from family caregivers and they find themselves experiencing quick healing in whatever situations they are in.