📖 History of Nursing
Periods of Nursing History
Intuitive Period
Apprentice Period
Educative Period
Contemporary Period
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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 performed out of compassion, desire to help, or to do good
Nursing is given by women
Practices:
Shaman – used white magic to counteract black magic
Trephining – drilling the skull to treat psychotic patients (believed to be possessed by evil spirits)
Growth of religion & civilization
Law of self-preservation – inspired man in search of knowledge
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Rise in Civilization
From nomadic → agrarian → urban life
Communication developed
Scientific knowledge increased health problems → demand for nurses
Nursing as duty of slaves & wives (medicine progressed, nursing stagnant)
Care still tied to superstition, religion, magic
Regions:
Near East – birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, Islam
New World – monotheism, Babylonia, Egypt, Hebrew
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Babylonians
Code of Hammurabi – 1st medical record
Established medical fees
Discouraged experimentation
Patient rights: choice of charms, medicine, or surgery
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Egyptians
Art of embalming (mummification, removal of organs, herbs/salt)
Knowledge of anatomy (from embalming)
“250 Diseases” documented
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Hebrews
Teachings of Moses – Leviticus, Mosaic Law
Father of sanitation
Hospitality to strangers, charity
Laws on hygiene, food, cleanliness
Ritual of circumcision (8th day after birth)
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China
Materia Medica – book of pharmacologic drugs
Used herbs for treatment
Wax preservation of bodies
Paper making
Prohibited human dissection → hindered medical progress
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India
Sushuruto – 1st nursing practice record
Hospitals by medicine men
Intuitive asepsis practiced
Nurses: lay brothers, priest nurses, pharmacists, masseurs, PT, cooks
Decline in medicine after fall of Buddhism
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Greece
Aesculapius – Father of medicine (mythology)
Hippocrates – Father of modern medicine
Rejected evil spirit cause of disease
Applied assessment, medical ethics
Caduceus – staff with serpents & wings (symbol of medicine)
Nursing done by untrained slaves
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Romans
Motto: “If you’re strong, you’re healthy”
Transition from paganism → Christianity
Fabiola – converted home into 1st Christian hospital
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Apprentice Period (11th – 1836)
On-the-job training under experienced nurses
Rise of religious nursing orders:
Knights of St. John (Hospitalers)
Teutonic Knights (Germany)
Knights of St. Lazarus (cared for lepers, syphilis, skin diseases)
St. Vincent de Paul – Sisters of Charity School of Nursing
Nursing saints: St. Claire, St. Elizabeth, St. Catherine of Siena
Dark Period (17th–19th century):
Hospitals closed, nurses were criminals, prostitutes, drunkards
Nursing lost its dignity
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Educative Period (Florence Nightingale Era, 1860 → )
St. Thomas Hospital, London – 1st formal nursing school
Florence Nightingale – “Lady with the Lamp”, Mother of Modern Nursing
Influences: war, emancipation of women, education
Notes on Nursing (book)
US Nursing: Bellevue Training School, Linda Richards (1st US graduate nurse, 1873)
Nursing associations: ANA, NLNE
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Contemporary Period (WWII – present)
Advances in science, technology, social change
Nursing offered in colleges & universities
WHO founded (global health efforts)
Use of atomic energy, aerospace medicine, new equipment
Primary Health Care – nurses in community health nursing
Expanded roles for nurses
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History of Nursing (Philippine Setting)
Early Beliefs
Diseases caused by enemies, witchcraft, evil spirits
Word doctors (priest-physicians), herbolarios (herb doctors)
Manghihilot, mangkukulam for childbirth/illness
Early Hospitals
Hospital Real de Manila – 1577 (Gov. Francisco de Sande)
San Lazaro Hospital – 1578 (Fray Juan Clemente, for lepers)
Hospital de Indios – 1586 (for poor Filipinos)
Hospital de Aguas Santas – 1590 (spring believed healing power)
San Juan de Dios Hospital – 1596 (for poor people)
Personages
Doña Hilaria de Aguinaldo – 1st president of Philippine Red Cross (1899)
Doña Maria Agoncillo de Aguinaldo – 1st Batangas Red Cross president
Josephine Bracken – assisted Rizal in treating sick
Melchora Aquino – cared for Katipuneros
Anastacia Giron Tupaz – founder of Filipino Nurses Association (1922), 1st chief nurse of PGH
Cesaria Tan – 1st Filipino with Master’s in Nursing abroad
Socorro Sirilan – pioneer in Social Service (San Lazaro Hospital)
Rosa Militar – pioneer in nursing education
Socorro Diaz – 1st editor of PNA magazine “The Message”
Conchita Ruiz – editor of “The Filipino Nurse”
Early Nursing Schools
Iloilo Mission Hospital & School of Nursing – 1906 (1st nursing graduates in 1909, 22 nurses)
PGH School of Nursing – 1907
St. Paul School of Nursing – 1907
St. Luke’s School of Nursing – 1907
UST – 1946
Fatima – 1947
