Nursing and its Origin

When Hippocrates was running around trying to convince everyone it wasn’t the Gods causing disease and that regular human sacrifice was not actually necessary, there were already men and women engaged in nursing activities. Of course the term nursing didn’t yet exist, but the vocation sure did. There is even biblical evidence of how to care for the sick. In those early days of healthcare, human life was a lot cheaper than it is today. Thus, the people caring for the ailing were not well educated or considered important members of society. How times have changed.

The very first Christian hospital was established around 370 CE in the city of Cappadocia, what is now the Ancient Region of Anatolia in Turkey. The practice of establishing a central place of care for the sick did not spread too rapidly, except in the case of war. However the custom of caring for the ill did continue and was taken on, particularly in Western Europe, by Catholic monks. In Spain the Obregones Nurses were established in 1568. The Obregones cared for all manner of those suffering and even went so far as to publish the very first “Instruccion de Enfermeros” or Instruction for nurses. In rural areas, it was the monasteries and convents that families sought out for health care, not the doctors. Poor farmers and their families could get all the help they needed from a monastery and the monks did not expect payment. Of course a tithe was paid anyway, but there was no formal checks and balances system.

When the 16th century began the role of caring for the sick regressed in some ways. By this time, and especially in countries where the Pope had been denounced, monasteries and convents were dismantled. Christianity was still a strong foundation to society, but the power and wealth of the Vatican was being ousted in regularity by this time. Nevertheless the initiative exhibited by the monks and nuns was unwavering. The Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul had saddled themselves with nursing the poor, but now in their own homes. In 1633 their order was confined to a rented room and the streets of the city in search of those needing help – as described by the Catholic Encyclopedia. In 1645 the first hospital in North America was established by Nurse Jeanne Mance. By 1660 there are over 40 houses run by the Sisters of Charity in France and surrounding nations. No political agenda was going to stop the goodwill of these early nurses.

Unfortunately, for those not under the care of an order of monks or nuns, life was much worse. During this time, nursing care was considered a useless job because the patient would most likely die anyway. Thus, it fell to prostitutes and female criminals serving their time. Theft, neglect and abuse were common, although it is important to note that observations of these women were recorded by doctors who had a disdain for anyone claiming to have medical expertise. After all, doctors were not what we know today. The title ‘doctor’ was given to pretty much anyone willing to cut into flesh: barbers, butchers, hangmen, jailers, executioners and those who had actually attended a medical school. So, in these makeshift hospitals where a nun was nowhere to be seen, we had egotistical doctors with questionable skills and criminals playing the role of nurse who may or may not have cared.

Then along came the iconic Florence Nightingale. It would be fair to say that she single-handedly revolutionized the nursing profession. She laid the foundation for the profession with the creation of her nursing school in 1860, Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital. Nightingale also wrote a book which would become the starting point for nursing schools around the world, Notes on Nursing. She had many avid followers throughout her life, but one such trainee was Linda Richards. Nightingale trained Richards, who would go on to become “America’s first trained nurse”. The profession had already come a long way by the end of the 19th century, but nurses were still not respected. Their role still included cleaning duties we now see delegated to janitorial staff.

New Zealand was the first nation to regulate nurses. In September of 1901 Ellen Dougherty was the first registered nurse in the world, and two years later North Carolina enacted a system of licensing nurses. The first and second World Wars saw the more commercial side of nursing, illustrated by pretty women in crisp military uniforms inviting unmarried women to see the world through nursing. Despite the supposed glamour of the profession – as depicted by those recruitment advertisements – nurses were still considered little more than cleaning ladies in the hierarchy of medicine. No doubt the ancient expectations of servitude from women came into play here.

Today nursing is a respected profession with many specialties, requiring great skill and advanced education. Doctors rely upon their nursing staff for insight and execution of medical procedures they themselves are not expertly trained to carry out. One could even surmise that the skill and knowledge of nurses today is far, far more advanced than those considered to be the most learned of doctors in the early days of medicine.

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