SEVILLA, Joshua Jireh T.

January 17, 2020

THFS 10:30-9:30 S401
Dark period of Nursing (17th-19th century to US Civil War): Role of Wars in Nursing

Era/Period Situation Personages Contributions

Religious The religious upheaval led by Martin Luther destroyed the John Howard – A prison reformer,
upheaval led unity of the Christian faith. The wrath of Protestantism helped improve the living conditions in
by Martin swept away everything connected with Roman Catholicism prisons and gave prisoners renewed
Luther King in schools, orphanages and hospitals. Nurses fled for their hope.
lives and in England, hundreds of hospitals were closed. Mother Mary Aikenhand - Established
There were no provisions for the sick, no one to care for the Irish Sisters of Charity to bring back
the sick. Nursing became the work of the least desirable into nursing the dedication of the early
women. These women took bribes from patients. They Christian Era.
worked seven days a week, slept in cubbyhole near the
hospital ward or patient and ate scraps of food when they
could find them. These women were personified in a
Charles Dickens novel as Sairey Gamp and Betsy Preg.
Crimean War During the Crimean war, the Inadequacy of care given to Pastor Theodore Fliedner and The first organized training school
(1854-1856) soldiers led to a public outcry in Great Britain. The role of Frederika Munster Fliedner – for nurses. Requirements for
Florence Nightingale in addressing this problem is well Established the Institute for the Training entering the school were character
known. Nightingale and her nurses transformed the of Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, reference from clergyman, a
military hospitals by setting up sanitation practices and Germany in 1836 certificate of health from the
washing clothing regularly. Mortality rate in Barrack William H. Russell - brought the physician, and permission from their
Hospital in Turkey, for example, was reduced from 42 to 2 desperate conditions in the Crimea to nearest relative. The development
percent. Male orderlies, with no formal medical training, the attention of the British public and of nursing during this period was
were seconded from the regiment. During peacetime the popularized the call for women nurses strongly influenced by trends
problems of a localized system were not apparent, but the to join the forces resulting from wars, from an arousal
experience of the Crimean War highlighted the difficulties of social consciousness, from the
caused by lack of equipment and supplies, poor emancipation of women and from
communication, inexperienced staff and badly managed the increased educational
resources. opportunities offered to women.
Popularization of the philosophy of
the Nightingale System –Importance
of nursing education, Hospital
affiliation, Nurses teaching students,
Health teaching as critical
responsibility, enforced written
physician orders, Expansion in no. of
schools to North America, &
Specialization developed.
American Pre- In the USA and Canada, religious orders, both Catholic and
Civil War Protestant carried out nursing, Augustinian nuns, Ursuline
sisters, Deaconesses of Kaiserwerth, Protestant sisters of
Charity and many others helped found stall hospitals.
Before the Civil War, most nurses in the United States were
male.
Mrs. Elizabeth Seton - an American,
founded the Sisters of Charity of
Emmetsburg, Maryland in 1809.
Madame Jeanne Mance – was the first
laywoman who worked as a nurse in
North America. She founded the Hotel
Dieu of Montreal, a log cabin hospital
Dr. Joseph Warrington - organized The
Nurse’s Society of Philadelphia in 1839
Women’s Hospital in Philadelphia
established a six – month course in
nursing to increase the nurse’s
knowledge while they worked. They
were taught a minimum amount of
medical and surgical nursing,
material medica and diatetics. In
The Nurse’s Society of Philadelphia,
nurses were trained on the job and
attended some preparatory courses.

American Civil In this era, Doctors realized the need for qualified nurses.
War The American Medical Association during the Civil War
created the Committee on Training of Nurses. Women
played a significant role in the Civil War. They served in a
variety of capacities, as trained professional nurses giving
direct medical care, as hospital administrators, or as
attendants offering comfort. It was designated to study
and make recommendations with regards to the training of
nurses. Although the exact number is not known, between
5,000 and 10,000 women offered their services. For the
first two years the introduction of females into a male
medical system was its own civil war. At the beginning of
the war, Union Army leadership realized that they needed
more medical staff and decided to accept women nurses to
fill the gap. Northern women also found ways to volunteer
as nurses without going through Dix. Some experienced
female nurses served, such as Catholic nuns, but any
matronly, responsible woman could qualify during the Civil
War. The escalating war required still more medical staff,
and in 1863 the Union Army allowed surgeons to choose
their own nurses. Women from various religious orders
were also recognized caretakers of the sick having
experienced epidemics, natural disasters and prior wars.
About 600 sisters from 12 Catholic orders served in the
Civil War.
Dorothea Lynde Dix – She established The American Red Cross was
the nurse corps of the United States founded. The American Medical
Army. She was chosen as the first Association during the Civil War
superintendent of U.S. Army nurses in created the Committee on Training
June 1861 and directed the nursing of of Nurses. It was designed to study
the injured. Dix insisted that her nurses and make recommendations with
be between thirty-five and fifty years regards to the training of nurses.
old, in good health, of high moral Also, the establishment of Nurse
standards, not too attractive, and Corps of the United States Army
willing to dress plainly. Over three happened in this era.
thousand nurses served the Union
through Dix's appointments.
Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth –
provided care and safety to slaves
fleeing to the North on the
Underground Railroad.
Walt Whitman And Loiusa May Alcott –
volunteered as nurses to give care to
injured soldiers in military hospitals.
Clara Barton – known as the "little lone
lady in black silk" and "Angel of the
Battlefield," worked on her own,
separate from the relief and aid
societies providing impartial care for
Union and Confederate soldiers. Her
work in establishing the American Red
Cross earned her a distinguished place
in medical history.
World War I The American Red Cross signed up in excess of 22,000
nurses during World War I. Almost half of them worked on
the Western Front. Some of them also worked with the
British and French armies serving in American units. The
volume of casualties from trench warfare drastically
changed the role of nurses on the health care team. Most
of the time, the nurses performed triage as patients came
in on ambulance trains, directed corpsmen who had little
medical training, managed entire wards of patients and
performed a variety of procedures, including irrigating
wounds and managing infection. The battlefield conditions
presented extreme challenges for nurses. Patients had
massive wounds to the face and head incurred as they
poked their heads out of trenches, massive wounds to
extremities that would require amputations, and also
burns from poisonous gases. Injuries from battles on
French farm fields featured both shards of shrapnel and
imbedded soil and manure. Antibiotics were not available,
and rubber gloves and wound irrigation solutions were
recent innovations. Nurses managed infections with great
success under these trying circumstances, especially
considering there was no electrical power and bandages
from wounds had to be washed by hand and re-used.
World War II WWIII created acute shortage of care. Auxiliary health care
workers became prominent. Practical Nurses, aides, and
technicians provided much of the actual nursing care
under the instruction and supervision of better prepared
nurse. Medical specialties arose to meet the needs of
hospitalized clients. Cadet Nurse Corps – established in
response to markets shortage of nurses. World War II
brought nurses closer to battle than ever before. They
were allowed to demonstrate their skills and competence
during extreme, dangerous conditions. In addition, they
were also able to serve in all of the arenas of war. Although
being so close to battle also put nurses at risk of becoming
prisoners of war, the risk was outweighed by the service
that was provided and the lives saved. WWII also
commissioned Army nurses were required to undergo
additional training such as field sanitation, and depending
on their area of nursing, psychiatry and anesthetics, and
Edith Cavell - a British nurse famous for
treating countless soldiers, no matter
their nationality, and helping as many as
200 Allied soldiers escape from
German-occupied Belgium during WWI.
Anna Caroline Maxwell, who has been
called the “American Florence
Nightingale,” worked behind the
scenes. She is known for her role in
establishing the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
Meddlesome Millie, Duchess of
Sutherland - Soon after war was
declared she and other grand ladies like
her took doctors and nurses to France
and Belgium, organizing their own
transport and equipment to set up
hospitals and casualty clearing stations.
Nurse Jane Kendeigh – the first nurse in
history to work in an active battlefield.
Capt. Della Raney - was assigned to
lead the nurses at Fort Bragg and
became the first black nurse to be
commissioned in the U.S. Army.
Angels of Bataan and Corregidor -
medical personnel retreated to the
Bataan Peninsula to set up a field
hospital. Nurses tended to 6,000
patients in four months.
Capt. Norma Parsons – the first woman
to enter the Air Guard. She served as a
nurse in the China-Burma-India Theater.
There are new advances in medicine
and modern medical practices such
as reformed cleanliness standards,
new medicines, updated triage
practices, or anesthetic, nurses and
their medical officers did what it
took to meet the needs of the
soldiers.
As large numbers of women
entered industry and many of the
professions for the first time, the
need for nurses clarified the status
of the nursing profession. The Army
Medical Department's newly
organized and thus experimental
"chain of evacuation" and the
nurses' role in it were tested in
North Africa and ultimately used
successfully in every theater in the
war. Nurses assumed
responsibilities handled by doctors
in the United States. Nurses trained
ward men to give infusions and
change dressings, duties
traditionally reserved for nursing
 physical training to help build up their endurance. Training
also taught the nurses new skills that were necessary for
serving as a field nurse such as learning to set up field
medical facilities. The nurses often worked and served
under harsh conditions. Their reality forced them to not
only adjust to these conditions, but to also improvise and
make emergency decisions on the spot.
Vietnam War During the Vietnam War, many nurses were deployed to
Southeast Asia. They worked at all of the major Army
hospitals in the area. Because men were allowed into the
Army Nurse Corps beginning in 1955, Vietnam was the first
war in which there was a major deployment of male
nurses. They were sent to areas that were considered too
dangerous for female nurses. Due to the unprecedented
style of the conflict, nurses were in greater danger than
ever before, and several nurses died in Vietnam. A nurse
Diane Carlson Evans - Vietnam War
Nurse & Founder and President of
Vietnam Women's Memorial
Foundation (1946 to Present). She
served as surgical nurse in the surgical
and burnt unit of the 36th Evacuation
Hospital in Vung Tau and in the 71st
Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku.
Majors Francis Smith, Helen Smith, and
personnel. The critical need for
nurses and the federally funded
Cadet Nurse Corps program had
been well publicized during the war.
Upon their return home, Army
nurses were eligible for additional
education under the G.I. Bill of
Rights, which would enable them to
pursue professional educational
goals. The Army nurse's experience
forced her to grow professionally
and gave her the self-confidence
and opportunity to pursue her
career when she returned to the
United States. She came home to a
society that was ready to accept
nurses as professional members of
the United States health care
system. World War II had forever
changed the face of military
nursing. The place of women in
American society had been
irrevocably altered and expanded
by the entrance of women into
professional and industrial jobs
previously reserved for men. Most
important for nurses, however, was
society's enhanced perception of
nursing as a valued profession
Men were allowed into the Army
Nurse Corps beginning in 1955.
Thus, in this period there was a
major deployment of male nurses.
The contribution of nurses in
Vietnam helped break norms in
American leadership. The Vietnam
War saw the emergence of trauma
care specialization and shock and
 could typically expect to work six days a week, twelve
hours a day, though emergency situations could easily
force them to work through the night. But even off duty,
nurses continued to work, volunteering to treat the
Vietnamese civilians. Army nurses established and staffed
public clinics, performed immunizations, taught courses,
and visited orphanages.
Jane Baker - arrived in Saigon to serve trauma units. This specialized care
with the United States Military abroad came to influence care at
Assistance Advisory Group’s Medical home, as greater attention was paid
Training Team. Their assignment was to to those returning soldiers
train the local Vietnamese in modern struggling post-traumatic.
nursing techniques to assist in the
escalating civil war. These three were
the first American service women to
serve in Vietnam.
Alene B. Duerk, Chief, Navy Nurse
Corps - she became the Navy’s first
service woman to achieve the rank of
rear admiral.

References:
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Burns, S.B. (2020). Nursing in the Civil War. Retrieved on January 17, 2019 from, http://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/uncover-history/behind-lens/nursing-civil-
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CMH. (n.d.). The Army Nurse Corps. Retrieved on January 17, 2019 from, https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/72-14/72-14.HTM
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Jade Bookstore
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