THE EVOLUTION OF NURSING

I. Period of Intuitive Nursing

• From Prehistoric times among primitive tribes up to the early Christian Era
• Untaught and Instinctive
• Nursing performed out of compassion
• Nursing belongs to women. It was viewed as a natural nurturing job for women. She is expected
to take good care of the children, the sick and the age
• Primitive men believed that illness was caused by the invasion of the victim's body of evil spirits.
They believed that the medicine man, Shaman or witch doctor had the power to heal by using
white magic, hypnosis, charms, dances, incantation, purgatives, massage, fire, water and herbs
as a mean of driving illness from the victim.
• Drilling a hole in the skull with a rock or stone without anesthesia was a last resort to drive evil
spirits from the body of the afflicted. TREPANNING OR TREPHINING

II. Period of Apprentice Nursing

• It extends from the founding of religious nursing orders in the crusades which began in the 11th
century and ended in 1836.
• Period of "on-the-job training". Nursing care was performed without any formal education and
by people who were directed by more experienced nurses.
• Nursing went down to the lowest level:
➢ wrath/anger of Protestantism, confiscated properties of hospitals and schools
connected with Roman Catholicism.
➢ Nurses fled their lives; soon there was shortage of people to care for the sick
➢ Hundreds of hospitals closed; there was no provision for the sick
➢ Nursing became the work of the least desirable women - prostitutes, alcoholics,
prisoners
• Pastor Theodor Fliedner and his wife, Friederike established the Kaiserswerth Institute for the
training of Deaconesses (the 1st formal training school for nurses) in Germany.
• This was where Florence Nightingale received her 3 months course of study in nursing
• Dark period of Nursing

III. Period of Educated Nursing/Nightingale Era 19th - 20th century

• Began on June 15,1860 when Florence Nightingale School of Nursing opened at St. Thomas
Hospital in London.
➢ The school served as a model for other training schools. Its graduates traveled to other
countries to manage hospitals and institute nurse-training programs.
➢ Nightingale focuses vision of nursing. Nightingale system was more on developing the
profession within hospitals. Nurses should be taught in hospitals associated with
medical schools and that the curriculum should include both theory and practice.
➢ It was the first school of nursing that provided both theory-based knowledge and clinical
skill building.
• The development of nursing during this period was strongly influenced by:
➢ trends resulting from wars - Crimean, civil war
➢ arousal of social consciousness
➢ increased educational opportunities offered to women.

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 • Florence Nightingale was asked by Sir Sidney Herbert of the British War department to recruit
female nurses to provide care for the sick and injured in the Crimean War.
• Female nursing education and nursing service begun.

IV. Period of Contemporary Nursing/20th Century

• This covers the period after World War II to present.
• Licensure of nurses started.
• Specialization of Hospitals and diagnosis
• Training of nurses in Diploma program
• Development of Baccalaureate and advance degree programs
• Scientific and technological developments as well as social changes mark this period
• Health is perceived as a fundamental right
• Nursing involvement in community health
• Technological advances - disposable supplies and equipment
• Expanded roles of nurses was developed
• WHO was established by the United Nations
• Aerospace nursing was developed
• Use of atomic energies for medical diagnosis, treatment
• Computers were utilized - data collection, teaching, diagnosis, inventory, payrolls, record
keeping and billing.
• Use of sophisticated equipment for diagnosis and therapy.

Nursing Theory
• Attempt to describe or explain the phenomenon called nursing
• An articulated and communicated conceptualization of invented or discovered reality in or
pertaining to nursing for the purpose of describing, explaining, and predicting or prescribing
nursing care.
• It is composed of context, content and process
Nursing theory is a system of concepts and practices put in place to inform meaningful actions in
the nursing field, such as how to treat patients, how to communicate with patient families, and how to
organize nursing responsibilities. Though there are many theories, they don’t all serve the same exact
purpose. Some apply to the greater whole of all nursing, while others function only under certain
circumstances or conditions.

Importance of nursing theories

• It provides the foundations of nursing practice
• Helps to decide what we know and what we need to know
• Aims to describe, predict, and explain the phenomenon in nursing
• It helps to distinguish what should form the basis of practice
• Maintains professional boundaries

Significance to the Discipline

 Specific to academia and refers to a branch of education, a department of learning or domain of
knowledge
 Provides framework to structure curriculum content or to guide the teaching of nursing practice
in nursing programs

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  Focus on knowledge about how nurses function which concentrated on the nursing process

Significance to Profession
A specialized field of practice which is founded by upon the theoretical structure of the science
or knowledge of the discipline and the accompanying practice ability

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Nursing Science and Theory in the Early 20 Century: Major Developments:
• The use of experimentation to gain new knowledge emerged as nurses strive to base their
actions on evidence & scientific data
• Positivism –use of both logical reasoning and empiricism became prevalent during this era
in the discovery of truth for the development of science
• Empirical and objective data co exist as the focus of interest of study as one of each need
to be tested in order to determine as to what is true or what is not
• As a result of different point of views, the growth of scientific knowledge commenced.
This is evident with the emergence of radical thinking – rationalism and empiricism.

Rationalism
It makes use of reason gained thru expert study, tested theory and established facts to evidently prove
something. Deductive type of reasoning is used to generate rationalist view which starts from the
general to specific knowledge.
Rationalism emphasizes the use of reasoning for the main purpose of knowing the harm or benefits of
an act to an individual.

Empiricism
It makes use of objective and tangible data or those that are perceived by the senses (smell,
sight, taste and feeling) to observe and collect data. These data are then used to formulate general
knowledge which is the inductive type of reasoning.

/icsrnman2022