Ellen Dougherty was the first to be registered on January 10, 1902. She was the first Registered Nurse in the World.
After 1905, it became a misdemeanor to claim to be an RN without a certificate of registration.
Only 3 of 5 nurses actually work in hospitals. Some non-hospital nursing careers include nurse-midwife, forensic nurse, nurse educator, school nurse, academic nurse writer, and legal nurse consultant.
Nurses walk 4 miles every shift! On average, nurses walk four to five miles every 12-hour shift they work. The average person only walks about 2.5 miles a day. Nurses walk double the distance every shift than the average population does daily. This interesting fact about nursing proves why nurses need a comfortable pair of shoes!
Nursing is considered the most honest and ethical profession in the United States! Every year, Gallup asks U.S. adults to rate the honesty and ethics of a number of professions, and for 18 years in a row, Americans overwhelmingly rate nurses as the most honest and ethical.
The first known nursing school was established in India in 250 BCE. However, only male students could attend nursing school at the time.
Linda Richards was the first American to earn a nursing degree. She enrolled in the new nursing program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, was the program’s first graduate in 1873.
The famous poet Walt Whitman, worked as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War! “The Wound Dresser” was just one of his pieces that reflected on his experience.
Nursing is a fast-growing profession. The federal government predicts that 200,000 new nursing jobs will be created each year between 2016 and 2026. That’s 2 million nursing positions!
Men are a growing portion of nurses in the United States. In 2018, men made up 9.6% of the total nursing population which was an increase from 7.1% in 2008.
The first documented travel nurses were present in the late 1970s when nurses were brought to New Orleans specifically to help care for the surge of people present for Mardi Gras.
As of October 2020, the pass rate for the NCLEX was 74.73%.
Most of the women (90%) who served in the Vietnam War were Army and Navy nurses.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 84,200 RNs are employed as school nurses: enough to staff just 64% of schools with a full-time nurse. However, many nurses are responsible for covering multiple schools, or they work part-time.
As of 2020, there were 2,986,500 working in the United States.
The average annual earnings for licensed practical nurses was $29,440 in 2000. In 2020, the average annual earnings were $48,500.
Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first professionally trained and licensed African American nurse in the U.S. She went on to co-found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN).
Accelerated-degree programs are making it easier for people to go into nursing as a second career. As of 2018, there were 282 accelerated baccalaureate programs, according to the AACN, with 30 more in the works.
Last year, 30,390 nurses were accepted into university. According to the UCAS, 2019 saw an increase of 6.1% of nursing course applications.
There is a serious shortage of nurses. Despite the facts revealing that more nurses are joining the register and more students are choosing to study nursing, there is a global shortage of nurses.
