hospitals

• hospitals in 19th century:

  • few toilets and poor sewage system
  • overcrowded with lack of fresh air
  • doctors had lack of cleanliness, so led to spread of infection
  • people did not understand germs to take prevention methods
  • doctors would go from patient to patient without washing their hands
• Florence Nightingale and Crimea:

  • Nightingale trained to become nurse in Europe
  • she experienced vision from God telling her she had mission to serve mankind
  • was sent to Crimea to look after soldiers and improve hospitals in 1853
• changes Nightingale made to Crimean hospitals:

  • she demanded for 300 scrubbing brushes to remove dirt near treated patients
  • nurses organised to treat 2000 wounded
  • provided clean bedding and good meals
• • within six months of being in the Crimea, Nightingale dropped the mortality rate from 40% to 2%
• changes Nightingale made in Britain:

  • she became national hero
  • she improved publicty on conditions of war hospitals
  • gave her credibility and allowed her to make changes to British hospitals
  • she implemented the pavillion plan
  • improved ventiliation with more windows
  • larger rooms
  • seperate isolation wards to stop disease spreading
• • Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing in 1859
  • set out role of nurse and importance of training
  • she set up the Nightingale School for Nurses
  • trained nurses on sanitary matters
  • trainng made nursing seem like profession - so more women signed up and number and skill of nurses improved
  • made nursing respectable
  • nurses previously were working class, drunk and flirtatious
• hospitals by 1900:

  • different wards split up infectious patients from those needing surgery
  • operating theatres provided seperate spaces for surgery
  • hospitals cleaned up germs with antiseptics
  • wanted to prevent germs from entering hospital
  • hospitals changes from being place of rest to treating sick
• continuity:

  • quack remedies still common
  • many sick people still treated at home by family
  • aopthecaries opened as pharmacies
• change:

  • treatments developed for specific disease
  • hospitals more cleaner
  • government became more involved in sanitation
  • hospitals were more widespread
  • vaccines developed