Events That Influenced the Practice of Nursing:

Womens Role
Traditional female roles of wife,

mother, daughter and sister have always included the care and nurturing of other family members.

From the beginning of time,

women have cared for infants and children; thus, nursing could be said to have its roots in the home.

The traditional nursing role has always entailed humanistic caring, nurturing, comforting and supporting.

Religion
Early religious values such as self-

denial, spiritual calling and devotion to duty and hard work, have dominated nursing throughout its history.

Nurses committed to these values

often resulted in exploitation and few monetary rewards

The deaconess groups which had

their origin in the Roman Empire of the third and fourth centuries were suppressed during the middle ages by the Western Churches.

However, these groups of nursing

providers resurfaced occasionally throughout the centuries, most notably in 1836, when Theodore Fliedner reinstituted the Order of

Deaconesses and opened a small hospital and training school in Kaiserswerth, Germany.
Florence Nightingale received her

training at Kaiserswerth School.

War
Throughout history, wars have accentuated the need for nurses.
During the Crimean war, the

Inadequacy of care given to soldiers led to a public outcry in Great Britain.

The role of Florence Nightingale in

addressing this problem is well known.

Nightingale and her nurses

transformed the military hospitals by setting up sanitation practices and washing clothing regularly.

Mortality rate in Barrack Hospital

in Turkey, for example, was reduced from 42 to 2 percent.

Period of Intuitive Nursing

Practiced since prehistoric times among primitive tribes and lasted

through the early Christian era.

Nursing was untaught and

instinctive.

It was performed out of compassion for others, out of the

wish to help others.

During this period, men believed that illness are caused by the

invasion of the victims body by the evil spirit through the use of black magic or voodoo.

They believed that a medicine man calledshaman or a witch doctor

had the power to heal by using the white magic.

Shaman also practiced trephining (drilling a hole in the skull with a

rock or stone without the benefit of anesthesia as a last resort to drive evil spirits from the body of the afflicted.

These healers used herbs, incantations, massage and dances as means of driving illness from the m the victim. Nursing remained the duty of slaves, wives, sisters or mothers

The care of the sick was still closely related d to religion, superstition and magic.
The period saw the birth of three

great religious ideologies, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Code of Hammurabi-provided laws that covered every facet of

Babylonian life including medical practice.

Egyptians introduced the art of embalming which enhanced their

knowledge in human anatomy.

Egyptians left a record of 250

recognized diseases.

 In Israel, Moses is recognized as the

Father of Sanitation.
In China, they gave the world

knowledge of material medica (pharmacology) which prescribed methods of treating wounds, infections, and muscular afflictions.

In India, Sushurutu, made a list of functions and qualifications of

nurses. These nurses were described as combination of physical therapist and cook.

 In Greece, caduceus, the insignia of medical profession. Hippocrates,

given the title Father of Scientific Medicine.

In Rome, Fabiola, beautiful woman matron who was converted to

Christianity by her friends, she made her home the first hospital in the Christian world.

Period of Apprentice Nursing

This period extends from the

founding of religious nursing orders in the Crusades,

which began in the 11th century and ended in 1836, when Pastor

Fleidner and his wife established Kaiserswerth Institute for the training of Deaconesses in Germany.

It is also called the period of on the job training.

Nursing care was performed

without any formal education and by the people who were directed by more experienced nurses.

Military Religious Orders and Their Works.

Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,

(Italian)- devoted to religious life and nursing.

Teutonic Knights (German)-

established tent hospitals for wounded.

Knights of St. Lazarus-was

founded primarily for the nursing care of lepers in Jerusalem after the Christians had conquered the city.

Alexian Brothers Hospital School of Nursing-the largest school of

nursing under Christian Order. Closed in 1969.

St. Clare-founder of the Second Order of St. Francis of Assisi, gave

nursing care to the sick and the afflicted.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary-known as the Patroness of Nurses built

hospitals for the sick and the needy.

St. Catherine of Sienna, the Lady with a lamp.She was a hospital

nurse, prophetess, researcher, and a reformer of society and the church.

In the 16th century, hospitals were established for the care of the sick.
There was a little employment and

education was only for the rich and titled.

St. Vincent de Paul, organized

group called Le Charite and the community of the Sisters of Charity.

Louise de Gras (nee Marillac) was

the first superior and co-founder of this order.

Dark Period
Extends from the 17th to the 19th century from the period of

reformation until the U.S Civil war.

The religious upheaval led by

Martin Luther destroyed the unity of the Christian faith.

The wrath of Protestantism swept away everything connected with

Roman Catholicism in schools, orphanages and hospitals.

Nurses fled for their lives and in England, hundreds of hospitals

were closed.
There were no provisions for the

sick, no one to care for the sick.

Nursing became the work of the least desirable women-women who

took bribes from patients.

They worked seven days a week, slept in cubbyhole near the

hospital ward or patient and ate scraps of food when they could find them.

These women were personified in a Charles Dickens novel as Sairey

Gamp and Betsy Preg.

Several leaders sought to bring about reforms. Among them were,

1. John Howard. A prison reformer,

helped improve the living conditions in prisons and gave prisoners renewed hope.

2. Mother Mary Aikenhand. Established the Irish Sisters of

Charity to bring back into nursing the dedication of the early Christian Era.

3. Pastor Theodore Fliedner and Frederika Munster Fliedner.

Established the Institute for the Training of Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, Germany in 1836

The first organized training school for nurses. Requirements for entering the school were, Character reference from clergyman. A certificate of health from the physician. Permission from their nearest relative.

Nursing in America. -People began to settle in the North American continent, to seek for new adventure, new quests and new trade routes.

-Mdme. Jeanne Mance, was the first laywoman who worked as a

nurse in North America. She founded the Hotel Dieu of Montreal, a log cabin hospital.

Pre-civil War Nursing

-in the USA and Canada, religious orders, both Catholic and

Protestant carried out nursing.

-Mrs. Elizabeth Seton, an American, founded the Sisters of

Charity of Emmetsburg, Maryland in 1809

American reforms in Nursing

-The Nurses Society in

Philadelphia organized a school of nursing under the direction of Dr. Joseph Warrington in 1839. Nurses were trained on the job and attended some preparatory courses.

Womens Hospital in Philadelphia,

established a six month course to increase the nurses knowledge while they worked. They were taught a minimum amount of medical and surgical nursing, material medica and diatetics.

During the Civil War

-The American Medical Association during the Civil War

created the Committee on Training of Nurses.

It was designated to study and make recommendations with

regards to the training of nurses.

Doctors realized the need for

qualified nurses.

Dorothea Lynde Dix-she established the Nurse Corps of the United States Army. She directed the nursing of the injured. Clara Barton- Founded the American Red Cross.

Period of Educated Nursing

This period began in June 15, 1860 when the Florence Nightingale

School of Nursing opened at St. Thomas hospital in London.

The development of nursing during

this period was strongly influenced by trends resulting from wars, from an arousal of social consciousness from the emancipation of women and from the increased educational opportunities offered to women.

Florence Nightingale,
Mother of Modern Nursing Lady with a lamp. Noted the need for preventive

medicine and good nursing.

An Advocated for care of those afflicted with diseases caused by

lack of hygienic practices.

Upgraded practice of nursing and made nursing an honorable

profession for gentle women.

Led the nurses that took care of

the wounded during the Crimean War.

Put down her ideas in two

published books, Notes on Nursing, and Notes on Hospitals.

Linda Richards-first graduate of nurse in the U.S.

Dr. William Halstead-designed the

first rubber gloves.

Caroline Hampton Robb-first nurse to wear rubber gloves.

Isabel Hampton Robb-first

principal of John Hopkins Hospital.

Clara Louise Maas-engaged in medical research in yellow fever.

Age of specialization began in the

first decade of the 20th century.

Preparation of standard curriculum

based on educational objectives for schools of nursing. (1913-1937).

Edith Cavell-served the wounded soldiers during the World War 1.

Also known as Mata Hari.

Period of Contemporary Nursing

This covers the period after the

World War II to the present. Scientific and Technological developments as well as social changes mark this period.

1.Establishment of World Health Organization by the United

Nations to assist in fighting disease by providing health information and improving nutrition, living standards, and environmental conditions of all people.

2. Use of atomic/nuclear energy for medical diagnosis and treatment.

3.Use of sophisticated equipment

for diagnosis and therapy.

4. Utilization of computers for

collecting data, teaching, establishing diagnosis, maintaining inventory, making payrolls, record keeping and billing.

5.The advent of space medicine

also brought about the development aerospace nursing. Colonel Pearl Tucker developed comprehensive one-year course to prepare nurses for aerospace nursing at Cape Kennedy.

6.Health is perceived as a fundamental human right. Laws

were legislated to provide such right.

7.Nursing involvement in

community health is greatly intensified.

8.Technological advances, such as the development of disposable

supplies and equipment have relieved the nurse from numerous tedious tasks.

9.Development of the expanded

role of the nurse. Nursing became a dynamic profession because the scope of nursing practice is expanding in the light of the modern developments in the constantly changing world.