Nursing The Profession

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Nursing - The Profession

• Dr David Lee
• 2002
• VUT - Sunbury

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NursingHistorical Development

• The Pre-Christian Era
• Nursing was not clearly defined
• Nursing Medicine Nurturing Comforting

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NursingHistorical Development

• Treatments and healing - village medicine men
  practice of witchcraft

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NursingHistorical Development

• Spirits and supernatural orientation - Evil
  spirits were responsible for illness
• Development of surgical practices to drive evil
  spirits out of the body of disease

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NursingHistorical Development

• Physician/shaman - held high position of
  authority
• Women - responsible for birth and caring for life
  - not educated - used Old wives tales

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NursingHistorical Development

• 460 - 370 BC
• Hippocrates of Cos ( the father of medicine) -
  changed medicine from superstitious magic to
  scientific orientation
• Disease being caused by the environment, not the
  gods

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NursingHistorical Development

• Hippocrates wanted educated persons to care for
  patients at the bedside
• Romans - developed nursing in their military -
  lost after Roman empire collapsed

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NursingHistorical Development

• The Christian Era
• 1. Religion, medicine and nursing were
  intertwined
• 2. Hospitals were built by religious groups /
  people

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NursingHistorical Development

• 3. Well known persons that established nursing
  and cared for the sick
• Phoebe - Roman deaconesses of the early church -
  The first visiting nurse
• St Helena - A matron - built hospital for the
  elderly
• Marcella - established a monastery at home and
  taught the care of the sick

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NursingHistorical Development

• Fabiola - a follower of Marcella - converted her
  home into a hospital in Rome
• Hildegarde - established scientific foundation
  for nursing and medicine
• - insisted nurses to wear uniforms and veils
  - signified humility, obedience, and service.
  (the veil was replaced by nurses cap)

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NursingHistorical Development

• Middle age 3 organizations influenced nursing
  training
• 1. Crusades (1096 - 1291) - creation of
  nurses/knights (men only) for battles and
  hospitals
• e.g. The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of
  Jerusalem (Knights of Malta)

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NursingHistorical Development

• 2. Religious organisations responded to plagues
  - followed religious teaching and established
  hospitals
• e.g. Saints Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Clare and
  Catherine
• 3. Secular orders not religious - independent
  and lay persons following Gods teaching

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NursingHistorical Development

• Renaissance (1438 - 1600)
• Time of revival of learning
• 1. Medicine went to university setting
• 2. Nursing remained within religious and military
  orders

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NursingHistorical Development

• 16th - 18th century (Age of Reformation)
• Dark age of nursing
• - Religious orders were suppressed
• - churches, monasteries and hospitals closed
• - nursing orders disbanded
• - all males disappeared from nursing

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NursingHistorical Development

• - Illness and plague spread over Europe -
  hospitals reopened
• - Only lower-class women, poorly educated and/or
  criminals serving sentences were doing nursing
  job
• - Nursing is last resort for women who could not
  make a living from unlawful practices

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NursingHistorical Development

• Industrial Revolution (mid - 18th century)
• - Creation of poor working conditions, industrial
  hazards, sickness
• - Creation of middle class people
• - Development of science / education

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NursingHistorical Development

• - Demands for hospitals caring for the sick
• - Middle class / educated formed charity
  organisations - St. Vincent de Paul Society
• - Middle class / educated women joined nursing -
  socially acceptable

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NursingHistorical Development

• First Nursing school formed by
• Theodor Fliedner - a Lutheran pastor
• Frederike Fliedner - Theodors wife
• in Kaiserwerth, Germany
• Students recommended by clergymen / physicians

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NursingHistorical Development

• The Kaiserwerth training school modeled for
  Florence Nightingale
• Further push for formal nursing training
• 1. War
• 2. Continued scientific advancement

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NursingHistorical Development

• Modern Nursing
• Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)
• Studied at Kaiserwerth in Germany and Sisters of
  Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris

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NursingHistorical Development

• - Superintendent of the Establishment of
  Gentlewomen During Illness
• - Superintendent of nurses in the Kings College
  Hospital in England

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NursingHistorical Development

• The Crimean War (1854 - 1856)
• - Superintendent of the Female Nursing
  Establishment of the English General Hospitals in
  Turkey
• - Trained 40 nurses to look after 1500 patients

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NursingHistorical Development

• - reduced mortality rate from 50 to 2 by
  initiating care based on principles of
  cleanliness and nutrition
• - Named The Lady with the Lamp
• - Written Notes on Nursing What It Is and What
  It Is Not from her experiences

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NursingHistorical Development

• - The Nightingale Training School for Nurses
  (1860) was established at St. Thomas Hospital in
  London
• - Opposed by London physicians who saw nurses as
  maids

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NursingHistorical Development

• Principles of Nightingale Nursing training
• 1. The training school should be an educational
  institution supported by public funds and
  associated with a medical school

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NursingHistorical Development

• 2. It should be affiliated with a teaching
  hospital, but also independent of it
• 3. The school be be an educational and not a
  service institution for the hospital (this issue
  continued to be debated for many years after her
  death)

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NursingHistorical Development

• 4. Professional nurses should be in charge of
  administration and instruction
• 5. There should be a home for the students in
  order to maintain discipline and character

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NursingHistorical Development

• Nursing in Australia
• 1. British model - early settlement
• 2. Western Australia - early 70s
• College of nursing - 3 years diploma

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NursingHistorical Development

• Transfer of nursing education to higher education
  from 70s , completed 90s
• Victoria Nurses strike in mid 80s - new career
  structure, pay, and education
• late 80s - from 3 yr diploma to 3yr Ba Degree