Welcome to this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga where we journey through the history of nursing education using stories that connect the past to the present and then our future as we reimagine our teaching and learning. In this year of Saga, we continue to focus on celebrating extraordinary nurses who have made significant contributions to nursing education. The National League for Nursing has selected 2022 as the Year
of the Nurse Educator. We will share stories of nurses and educators who recognized a need, challenged traditional customs, and influenced transformative change. We want to not only spotlight the historic and continuing inspiration of nurse educators - but through stories, inspire nurses to enter teaching as we look to
build tomorrow's nursing workforce. We need more nurse educators now if the demand for more nurses is to be met anytime soon and the pandemic highlighted just what is at stake when nursing resources are stretched too thin, particularly for people of color and other underserved communities. 1893 was the birth of The Society, as the organization was called, and marked the beginning of organized nursing
in the United States. The National League for Nursing of today is that organization with a story that tells the saga of how organized nursing in our nation shaped a new world of reform and professional transformation. Transformation is a journey, and during the early years, the Society faced opposition from physicians who objected to nursing's growing self-governance. The belief at that time was that nursing, often considered to be a role that women were born to,
did not require formal training or education. By forming the Society, superintendents of training schools for nurses collectively worked to counteract the external control exerted by those who inhibited the profession's growth; power through organization remained a central unifying theme. They organized so that each superintendent did not face this opposition alone.
Through their efforts, the Society worked to overcome the tarnished image of untrained, unkempt, and uneducated nurses, a belief that was widely embraced in the early 20th century. Early pathfinders whose stories we shared in our 2021 Saga series - Florence Nightingale, Isabel Hampton Robb, Mary Adelaide Nutting, Susie King Taylor, Dorothea Dix, and Lillian Wald, to name just a few - led with purpose and tenacity to co-create a transformative future for the nursing profession.
During these early days of the Society, despite the need to accommodate the political realities of the time, these early pathfinders put into place educational standards and criteria for quality to nurture pedagogical expertise. Nursing and nursing education continue to evolve with contemporary leaders who created important pathways - Loretta Ford, Margaret Newman, and Hazel Johnson-Brown - who were also celebrated in our 2021 Saga series.
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the nursing education landscape. As in our early days, it isn't hard to imagine that nursing education may never be the same. Innovation and systems design thinking are now a recognized need to continue to transform both nursing and nursing education. This is evident now more than ever as nurse educators and nursing programs quickly adapted to COVID-19 to provide high level quality education remotely. Here are some examples.
Clinical nurse educators who creatively deployed nursing students to assist with COVID-19 care and model effective emergency care. High-tech nursing education saved the day. The innovative use of simulation, artificial intelligence, and integrative technology to educate today's nursing students who are tomorrow's frontline heroes.
And how nursing education is taking innovation and moving it forward as well as integrating technology into clinical education while revolutionizing curricula. Just as our early leaders banded together to reform nursing education and create a preferred future for the nursing profession, as members of the NLN today, we look to the future with determination and optimism.
Join us as we move forward with this Year of the Nurse Educator through our 2022 Saga series sharing our historical roots that connect the past to our new informed present and move us to reimagine our teaching and learning. And so the saga continues. And may our saga continue as we bring to a close this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga. Thank you for joining us