medieval medics

• women:

  • were not paid for as they were often family members
  • gave advice to sick people
  • carried out childbirth
  • conducted bleeding and purging and sometimes herbal remedies
  • had no formal qualifications - gained knowledge from experience and passed it on
  • very accessible as they were often family
• physicians:

  • very expensive
  • diagnosed illnesses and recommended treatment
  • did not treat people, left this to women or apothecaries
  • spent 7-10 years studying medicine at university but learning was based on inaccurate theories
  • were not accessible as they were often available to rich and royalty
• apothecaries:

  • paid for but were cheaper than physicians
  • mixed remedies together which had been prescribed
  • sometimes prescribed poison which goes against fundemental beliefs that healthcare workers should only help patients
  • gained knowledge which was passed down by ancestors
  • knowledge sometimes came from Materia Medica
  • widely available to buy treatments from
• surgeons:

  • paid for but cost would depend on treatment
  • some were untrained - would bleed patients or do minor surgeries and pulling teeth
  • some were trained - would remove limbs or cut cataracts from eye
  • some were unqualified but people went to them beacuse they had sharp knives and a steady hand
  • others studied in European universities and were very qualified
  • untrained surgeons were widely available