Nursing the Next Generation

A college aged girl came in yesterday looking for a book on Florence Nightingale. Unfortunately we only had juvenile books on Florence. The girl wanted something more age appropriate on good old Flo but couldn't wait three to seven business days for the book to get here because she waited until the last minute to do her paper. After a brief interview in which I had to ask the questions that would give me an idea of what she really needed, I discovered that she just needed information on someone who made a significant contribution to nursing. OMG. This girl wants to be a nurse...a nurse? And all she could come up with was Florence Nightingale? I asked her if Clara Barnes or Dorothea Dix would be acceptable. She never heard of them. She didn't even know who Marie Curie was. Arghh!!! This is an adult. I had to print out bios for her so she could decide. Oh dear. It's not the fact that she didn't know these people but how helpless she seemed to be in making any kind of decision. It takes a lot of intelligence and commitment to be a nurse and something tells me she's not prepared.