We’re getting ready for the 2020 International Year of the Nurse & Midwife
And to celebrate it, we at Davaar Consultancy are delighted to be giving away free registration for one lucky nurse or midwife to attend the ACN Nurses Forum in Canberra on 19th – 21st August 2020.
Simply tell us who is your Nursing or Midwifery Role Model (currently or historically).
- What is it about the person or their work that you most admire?
- If you were to meet them today what question you would ask them?
- If they were to ask you – how do you envisage your professional role in 50 years? How would you respond to them?
Nurses who have inspired us:
Nurse Pioneer – Clarissa (Clara) Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912)
Nurse Clara Barton: Founder of American Red Cross
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was a teacher when her feet directed her to tread the more risky life of bringing both care and supplies into the heart of the battlefields during the American Civil War, where she became known as the Angel of the Battlefield due to her frequent timely arrival, helping surgeons caring for troops at many Civil War battles.
Clara’s nursing journey began with nursing her severely injured brother, David, back to health when she 10 years old, long after the doctors had given up hope for him, but her philanthropic life dawned amid the Baltimore riots, organizing a relief program for the soldiers.
The need for medical supplies was huge and advertising for donations greatly helped. Soon after the relief operation, Clara Barton travelled with army ambulances to distribute supplies that she’d had donated, nurse victims, give them comfort, and even cook for them.
After the war, she created and ran the Office of Missing Soldiers, in the Gallery Place neighborhood of Washington DC. The office’s purpose was to find or identify soldiers killed or missing; an activity that eventually ushered the Red Cross tracing services to the humanitarian scene.
The job for Clara Barton in the American Civil War unfolded as a long start for an even longer humanitarian service, this time serving not just to warzone victims but also to the disaster victims organising relief efforts.
In Europe, she’d seen the success of the International Red Cross (now Red Cross and Red Crescent), and after her return to the United States in 1873 she campaigned vigorously and successfully for America to sign the Geneva Convention. The agreement sought to allow for the treating of the sick and wounded in battle, the proper identifying and burial of those killed in battle, and the proper handling of prisoners of war. In 1881 she organized the American Association of the Red Cross, known from 1893 as the American National Red Cross, and served as its president until 1904. This also led to the expansion of International Red Cross relief efforts, covering victims of natural disasters, called the American Amendment.
Barton served the American Red Cross until 1904 and established the National First Aid Association of America, where she was the honorary president for 5 years. Clara Barton died in 1912 at the age of ninety-one.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clara-Barton
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/clara-barton
Image: By Mathew Brady – http://www.nps.gov/clba/photos/wcbbrady.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=396628
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