Florence Nightingale has influenced my line of thoughts as a nurse through her legacy. She was an innovative nurse whose core values were geared toward the development of a nursing program to counter the healthcare needs of the people in the 20th and 21st centuries. Nightingale engaged in advocacy for the development of professionalism in the nursing career through educating the nurses, and she developed various guidelines for the nurses to apply in their practice. One of the most important guidelines she developed in her practice was the evidence-based nursing system, which is still used in the health care system. Her health guides are still relevant in the nursing profession, and many scholars refer to her ideas in developing theoretical models for the nursing practice. Her hands-on approach to enhance the quality of health care services across the globe challenges other nurses to develop a commitment to their profession, and to use their individual talents to make positive changes in the health care system. Nightingale revealed that nurses can influence positive changes in service delivery on a global scale, and every nurse is inspired by Nightingale’s legacy (Nightingale, 2008).
Millennium goals to advance
The current nursing professionals must develop changes that help in the achievement of the millennium development goals. There is clear indication that the achievement of the goal number 4, 5, and 6 in the millennium goals list cannot be attained without the integration of the efforts of nurses on a global scale. I intend to become part of a professional group that looks to help the world attain these goals. The first goal is to help in the reduction of child mortality. This goal can be attained through the allocation of nursing professionals in the rural health care facilities. I will help in the advocacy of an increase in the number of people taking up nursing courses to fix the current global challenge of the shortage of nurses in hospitals. I will engage in compelling nurses to take part in voluntary work in the sub-Saharan Africa region and other regions that have high child mortality rates (Donlon, 2014).
The second goal is the improvement of maternal health. Many women die during and after childbirth, and it is one of my personal goals to influence the development of programs aimed at educating nurses in the affected areas to facilitate safer services for the mothers. I will also influence the development of a program to educate pregnant mothers on how to take care of their health during and after pregnancy. The third goal that I intend to help achieve is the development of preventive health care services against serious illnesses like HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. Through advocacy and participative leadership, I will visit the worst hit areas by the pandemics, and develop nursing groups to tackle the underlying issues that magnify the prevalence to acquiring the diseases among the people (Donlon, 2014).
Advancing the UN goals
The collective application of the guidelines provided by Florence Nightingale and other nursing theorists by the nurses can help in the achievement of the goals set by the UN. The current nursing shortage challenges across the world can be eliminated through the development of high-performance teams in the health care facilities to tackle the tasks in the workflow (Gardner, 2005). The first example of how we could support the achievement of the UN goals is through advocacy for the nurses across the globe to employ evidence-based service delivery. The second plan is to provide holistic education to the nurses in the rural areas to enhance their skill levels, which would translate to higher competence and effective delivery of the goals.
References
Donlon, M. (2014). UN Summit concludes with adoption of global action plan to achieve development goals by 2015. Web.
Gardner, D. B. (2005). Ten Lessons in Collaboration. Web.
Nightingale, F. (2008). Florence Nightingale’s Suggestions for Thought: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale (Vol. 11). Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.