Nursing History: Contributions, Concepts and Facts Prior to the era of Florence Nightingale



Nursing History: Contributions, Concepts and Facts Prior to the era of Florence Nightingale

Introduction

When nursing students are told that they have to learn about the history of nursing they often question how learning history of nursing will be useful for them. At times we are not able to associate past with present conditions. The reason behind knowing the past of an occupation is its influence. There is always profound association and influence of past on present methods and technology. History or past has specific relationship with image, advancement in practice, war, education, workforce issue, research and regulation/licensure (Judd & Davis, 2010).

The ancient nursing educational studies or program were not fully equipped or we can cal those frameworks as apprentice curriculum because these studies were not effective and full of shortcomings. In those times, nursing was taken as a job of poor class or a servant class work. It is a fact that Roman Catholic nuns used to work as nurses. Nurses were supposed to be uneducated and non-experience group of people. Before Florence Nightingale, hospitals were polluted and poorly constructed buildings. As nurses were not educated in the field of medicine, they used to ignore the importance of cleanliness which was the major cause of high death rate. Nurses were not properly trained to take care of patients and were not able to dress patient's injuries. This was the main reason behind higher death rate at hospitals. At hospitals, patients were used to be exposed to germs as there was no proper plan for sanitation which actually augmented the injuries and deterioration factor for patient's health. Even the meal of patients used to left uncover which was another factor for mounting germs at hospitals. As nurses were not well ...