Background

Clara Barton was influential to the development of the profession of nursing. Nursing was almost nonexistent during Barton’s time. Caring for the sick was commonly casual and provided by women within the household (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008). Barton was no stranger to this idea.  She nursed her brother back to health after a fall that left him bedbound (Clara Barton, 2012). Barton did not receive much formal education, but she was tutored by her four siblings and attained her skill of nursing merely from caring for her ailing brother (Women in History, 2012).  

After being declined to head a school she opened in New Jersey, Barton relocated to Washington D.C. (Women in History, 2012). She like many other females during the Civil War volunteered to care for the ill and wounded soldiers on the battlefields and in make shift hospitals (Egenes, 2009). It was then that Barton realized her “calling” as a nurse (Nurturing a Nation, 2010). Originally, war officials refused her assistance, but Barton soon gained trust and began receiving medical supplies from nationwide (Women in History, 2012). This eventually led to the establishment of local voluntary organizations (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008).