Paper Sample on Pioneering Compassion: The Impactful Journey of Dorthea Dix in Nursing History

Dorthea Lynde Dix was an American advocate who served during the Civil War as a superintendent nurse to the Army. In the nursing field, she played a significant role in the foundation of mentally ill hospitals estimated to be more than thirty. She was a leading figure in the nursing profession (Stickler & Farmer, 2019). She aspired to many as a change agent due to her international and national movement that defied all odds that mentally disturbed people could not be helped or cured. She also criticized the cruelty and neglect of the mentally ill, for instance, incarceration without clothes, caging, and restraint in a physically painful way. Her single emphasis on matters of the mentally ill resulted in some significant triumphs.

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Like my change agent Dorthea Dix I possess various similarities and fewer differences, which I have discussed as follows, my energy is directed primarily in the direction of the outer world of activities and spoken words. Also, my preference is to get things done quickly and in favor of the people. I focus more on creating a better experience for people like Dorthea, who defied all odds that mentally disturbed people could not be helped or cured. I enjoy resolving vital problems, similar to Dorthea, who played an essential role in the foundation of more than thirty hospitals for mentally ill patients. Dorthea focused on looking at information in terms of facts and details, thus focusing more on current situations than possibilities for the future. She never waited for emphasis on matters concerning the mental, which generated fruits in the present world of nursing. Therefore, I have a similar personalities to Dorthea. Still, differences such as I get a sense of achievement from what I do by myself while enjoying the things I do with others to meet the team’s achievement, unlike Dorthea, who preferred working everything up on her own. Also, as opposed to her, I feel comfortable in areas that am familiar with and tend to approach it with reality. I also differ from her when seeking experience, enjoying the world as it is, and paying attention to current events. I take life to be a tendency of the succession of occasions where I get things done and possess a constructive impact on the people around me.

There are various lessons that I can emulate from the personalities and characters of Dorthea Dix. To begin with, she defied all odds that came before her insinuating that mentally ill people could not be cured or helped through funding and coming up with national and international movements, which later made her a leading figure. Secondly, in the nursing world, she founded more than thirty hospitals for the mentally ill, which played an essential role in treating the patients. Finally, her passion for dealing with matters of the mentally ill through emphasizing drives me to become a change agent in my nursing career.

References

Farreras, I. G. (2019). History of mental illness. General Psychology: Required Reading, 244.

Modak, T., Sarkar, S., & Sagar, R. (2016). Dorothea dix: A proponent of humane treatment of mentally ill. Journal of Mental Health and Human Behaviour, 21(1), 69.

Strickler, J., & Farmer, T. (2019). Dorothea Dix: Crusader for patients with mental illness. Nursing2020, 49(1), 49-51.