Fundamentals of Nursing I

Nursing has grown and changed over time due to several key influences:

Women’s Roles
Nursing began as an extension of traditional roles held by women—such as wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters—who naturally provided care and support to others. These caring roles helped shape the early image of nursing.

Religion
The religious values, such as Self-denial; Spiritual calling; Devotion duty; hard work, especially in the Christian value of “love thy neighbor as thy self” and Christian parable of the good Samaritan.

These values inspired people to care for the sick and poor. Religious groups and orders supported this mission:

• Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaller)
• Knights of Saint Lazarus – cared for people with leprosy and chronic diseases
• Built hospitals and managed care standards
• Theodore Fliedner also helped develop nursing by reopening the Deaconess order and starting a hospital and training school in Kaiserswerth, Germany.

War
Wars greatly influenced nursing by showing the need for trained care:

• Crimean War (1854–1856)
  The inadequacy of care given to soldier led to a public outcry in Great Britain. The role of Florence Nightingale played in addressing this problem is well known. She transformed the hospital setting, setting up sanitation practices like hand washing and washing clothes properly and regularly.
• American Civil War (1861–1865)
  Several nurses emerged for their contributions, e.g.
  • Harriet Tubman & Sojourner Truth. Both provided care to injured and safety to slaves fleeing to the North on the underground Railroad.
  • Mother Biekerdyke & Clara Barton - gave care to injured and dying soldier.
  • Authors Walt Whitman & Louisa May Alcott volunteered as nurses to give care to injured soldiers in military hospitals.
• World War II
  The Cadet Nurse Corps was created to address the severe nurse shortage during the war.

Societal Attitudes
Before mid-1800’s nursing was without organization, education and social status. Usual public negative attitudes and image toward nurses include: Woman’s place was in the home; No respectable woman should have a career.; Woman is said to be a wife and mother; Pleasant companion for his husband; Responsible mother for her children. However, the Guardian Angel or Angel of Mercy image arose in the latter part of 19th century because of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, which are Respect for the nursing profession; Granted women the right to vote and allow nurse to control their profession. Nightingale also raised the status of Nursing through education, where nurses were no longer untrained housekeepers but people educated in the care of the sick.