Nursing Pin - Nursing Symbols

Nursing Symbols

Pins vary widely in shape and imagery, generally about the proportions of a woman's brooch (less than 10 cm diameter). A common graphic is an old pattern oil lamp. These lamps or candles were the only lighting available before kerosene became available early in the twentieth century. There are a selection of lamps in the Florence Nightingale museum, thought to have been used in the Scutari hospital in the area known geographically as the Balkans (then British Moldavia, now southern Ukraine), during the war with Russia. American Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem "Saint Philomena" dedicated to the work of Florence in 1857. In this verses, Longfellow characterised Florence as "The lady with the lamp". The poem was used in fundraising for the wounded veterans of the empire. The image of the lamp used by the emerging modern nursing profession took hold.

Another common graphic found on nursing pins is the symbol we associate with the international association of the red crescent and red cross, namely the red cross itself. In times past, young women who adopted the profession of nursing were accepted as nurses, particularly in overseas service roles, such as military and mission work, when they joined the red cross society. Volunteers usually had to supply their own uniforms, equipment and generally had to undertake charitable works in order to raise funds for their own passage to the area of identified need. Red cross nurses are honoured in the 1916 song Rose of no man's land but were by no means the only volunteers. Nurses were also drawn from organisations like the ancient order of deaconesses and quaker ambulance units. The situation changed during the great war, in which the contribution of nursing to the war effort was recognised in several urgent recruitment drives. As nurses were granted access to postings, commissions and pensions, amateur involvement declined.

Another symbol previously used was the sword entwined by double winged serpents. This sword of caduceus was mistakenly used by the United States medical forces in place of the wand of asclepius (one serpent without wings on a stick), a long standing symbol of medical doctors and physicians.

Other common symbols include

• stork and baby, legacy torch,
• fountain of youth
• religious symbols - crucifix, star of david, crescent moon.