History of Nursing

• Periods in the history of nursing

  • Intuitive period
  • Apprentice period
  • Contemporary period
  • Educative period
• Characteristics of the Intuitive period

  • Prehistoric → early Christian era
  • More on intuition
  • Nomads travel from one place to another
  • Survival of the fittest
  • "Best for the most" - motto
  • Sickness is due to "voodoo"
  • Nursing is given by the WOMEN
  • Shaman uses white magic to counteract the black magic
  • Trephining: drilling the skull to treat psychotic patients
  • Growth of religion
  • Growth of civilization
  • Lack of self-preservation inspire man in search of knowledge
• Characteristics of the Rise in Civilization period

  • From the mode of nomadic life → agrarian society → gradual development of urban community life
  • Existence of means of communication
  • Start of scientific knowledge → more complex life → increase in health problems → demand for more nurses
  • Nursing as a duty of slaves and wives
  • Nursing did not change but there was progress in the practice of medicine
  • Care of the sick was still closely allied with superstitions, religion and magic
• Code of Hammurabi


  1st recording on the medical practice<|>Established the medical fees<|>Discouraged experimentation<|>Specific doctor for each disease<|>Right of patient to choose treatment between the use of charms, medicine, or surgical procedure
• Art of embalming


  Mummification<|>Removing the internal organs of the dead body<|>Instillation of herbs and salt to the dead<|>Used to enhance their knowledge of the human anatomy
• "The 250 Diseases"


  Documentation about 250 diseases and treatments
• Teaching of Moses


  Created Leviticus<|>Father of sanitation
• Values and practices of the Hebrews

  • Hospitality to strangers
  • Act of charity
  • Laws controlling the spread of communicable diseases
  • Laws governing cleanliness
  • Laws on preparation of food
  • Purification of man and his food
  • Ritual of circumcision
• Factors that hampered the advancement of medicine in China

  • Baby boy given girl's name
  • Prohibits dissecting of human body thus thwarting scientific study
• Medicine and nursing in China


  Used massage, hydrotherapy, and exercise as preventive health measures<|>Used many herbs, minerals, and acupuncture to heal the sick
• India

  Sushuruto - 1st recording on the nursing practice
• Qualifications of nurses in India

  • Lay brothers
  • Priest nurses
  • Combination of pharmacist
  • Masseurs
  • Physiotherapists
  • Cooks
• There was a decline in medical practice in India due to fall of Buddhism which is a state religion
• Qualifications of early hospital staff in India

  Knowledge of the manner in which drugs should be prepared for administration<|>Cleverness<|>Devoted to the patient<|>Purity of mind and body
• Indian women served as midwives and nursed ill family members
• Aesculapus


  Father of medicine in Greek mythology
• Hippocrates


  Father of modern medicine<|>1st to reject the idea that diseases are caused by evil spirits<|>1st to apply assessment<|>Practice medical ethics
• Caduceus


  Insignia of medicine<|>Composed of staff of travellers intertwined with 2 serpent (the symbol of Aesculapus and his healing power)<|>At the apex of the staff are the two wings of Hermes(Mercury) for speed
• Nurses function of untrained slaves in Greece
• Fabiola


  Converted to Christian and later she converted her home to a hospital and used her wealth for the sick<|>Created the first hospital in the Christian world which is in Rome called Nosocomium(a place for sick)
• Nosocomial infection


  An infection acquired from the hospital
• Corporal works of mercy


  • Feed the hungry
  • Give water to the thirsty
  • Clothed the naked
  • Visit the imprisoned
  • Shelter the homeless
  • Care of the sick
  • Bury the dead
• Phoebe


  First deaconesses and visiting nurse
• Marcella


  Considered the first educator<|>Taught the care of the sick to her followers
• Paula


  One of the most learned woman of this period<|>Built a shelter for pilgrims and hospital for the sick
• Parabolani


  Provided an opportunity for the male nurses in the early church period<|>Took care of the sick and buried dead
• Nurturing functions of the nurse in Africa

  • Midwife
  • Herbalist
  • Wet nurse
  • Carer for children and the elderly
• Wet nurse


  A woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child
• Characteristics of the Apprentice period

  • 11th century → 1839
  • On-the-job training period
  • Care performed by people who are directed by more experienced nurses
  • Starts from the founding of religious orders in the 6th century through the Crusades in the 11th century
  • Struggle in religious, political and economic power
  • Crusades took place in order to gain religious, political, and economic power for adventure
  • Military religious orders established hospitals that were staffed by men
• During the dark period, nursing become not respectable occupation
• Knights of St. John of Jerusalem

  Italian<|>Devoted to religious life and nursing
• Teutonic Knights


  Germany<|>Established tent hospital for the wounded
• Knights of St. Lazarus

  Germany<|>Was founded primarily for the nursing care of lepers in Jerusalem after Christians had conquered the city
• Hansen's Disease


  Medical term for leprosy
• Alexian Brothers


  Members of a monastic order founded in 1348<|>Established the Alexian Brothers Hospital School of Nursing, the largest school of nursing under a religious order that operated exclusively for men
• Only entering a convent could a woman follow a career, obtain an education, and perform acts of charity that her faith taught would help her gain grace in heaven
• Orders of St. Francis of Assisi

  • First order - founded by St. Francis himself
  • Second order (Poor Clares) - founded by St. Clare of Assisi
  • Third order (tertiary order) - composed of members who devoted their time to perform acts of mercy in their communities; most provided nursing care in homes and hospitals
• The Beguines


  Composed of lay nurses who devoted their lives to the service of suffering humanity<|>Founded in 1170 by a priest, Lambert Le Begue
• Other religious orders


  • Oblates
  • Benedictines
  • Ursulines
  • Agustinians
• Camillus de Lellis


  Founded a nursing order in the 16th Century to provide care for the poor, the sick, the dying, and those in prison