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

Nursing has developed from a volunteering job to a profession. Nowadays there are several types of nurses each catering to a certain type of patient. Compared to nurses several years ago, today's nurses are well educated and understand the concepts of medication quite well. In fact, many nurses even have the capabilities to act as a consultant when doctors are not present.

The ancient nursing educational studies or program were not fully equipped or we can call 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 the poor class or a servant class work. It is a fact that Roman Catholic nuns used to work as nurses. Apart from them, uneducated girls used to take up this profession.

The situation in clinics and medical facilities were chaotic. The only people who could take care and treat patients were doctors. All the load of medical treatments fell on the doctors who were already over burdened with their work (Helmstadter & Godden, 2011). The profession of nursing has slowly developed from the traditional role of humanitarian aims, women volunteers, theories, trial and error, and war into the form we see it today. It was only in the 19th century that nursing started to evolve to the form we see it today. The complexity of nursing has increased today with several new diagnoses and treatments developed.

Discussion

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. They 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. Even the meal of patients used to be left uncovered which was another factor for mounting germs at hospitals. As nurses were not well trained, their actions to cure patient or facilitate patients were end up at creating chaos for patients and led to affect negatively to patient's sentiments and health.

Contributions

Phoebe has been mentioned in the book of Romans as the first nurse in history. She was sent by St. Paul to Rome to take care of sick men and women. Apart from her, there are many other nurses who have made it into history books for their works in serving humanity. Most of them were either Christian nun or military workers.

During the dark ages, 1000-1500 A.D., nursing was limited to monasteries that eventually became overcrowded. During this time, several hospitals were built by the catholic mission who helped the profession of nursing to develop.

At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, religious orders broke down meaning that nursing care and health care facilities were seriously affected. During this time, women were not allowed to leave their houses; thus, the number of ...