History of

nursing
Course requirement week 1

Marie Kris G. Abayon, R.N.

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Nursing over the years has greatly
evolved from caring for the sick in
homes, churches into hospitals with these
changes women have went from
uneducated, nonvalued caregivers to
educated and valued professionals.
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Nursing before the 1800’s was not valued in
society. Caring for the sick was mainly
supported by religious monks, nuns or the
religious community who wanted to do work
for God.
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Nursing and caring
for the ill changed during the Crimean
War by one women.

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In 1837, Florence Nightingale felt called
to the profession of nursing after doing
charitable deeds within the community.

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Coming from wealthy statue, her parents
put hault to her choices of the nursing
occupation saying it was inappropriate
to a women of her class

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Being raised in a wealthy family in
England, her parents had expectations
of her to marry and live life as an
upper class citizen and not one of a
lower statue.

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In 1844, her parents
eventually were excepting of her calling
to nursing and she began her study at
Luthern Hospital in Kaiserwerth,
Germany.

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In 1850, Florence
Nightingale travelled to Alexandria,
Egypt where she expanded her knowledge
at the St. Vincent de Paul Institute.

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In 1853, Nightingale
returned to England and became a
superintendent of a Hospital for
invalid women.

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In 1854, After
the Crimean War broke out there
were a shortage of medical facilities
for the wounded British soldiers.

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Sidney Herbert,
a war minister who knew Nightingale
ask her to gather a team of nurses to
oversee the military hospital in Turkey.

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By late 1854, her team had greatly improved
the hospital conditions and decreased the
rate of mortality.

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Nightingale’s focus
was to improve patient care by
reorganizing and cleaning. In this time
period medications were not readily
available, hygiene was neglected and
mass infections were common.

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She believed that
implementing and improving sanitary
conditions would decrease mortality
and infectious disease.

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To prove that her
change in sanitary condition really was
effective, Nightingale used her
mathematical intelligence to prove the
statical data.

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Nightingale came up
with a coxcomb graph which became
an excellent tool to visually present the
statical data

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In 1858, Florence
Nightingale presented the coxcomb
graph to the Royal Commission in
hopes to improve sanitation, medical
care and public health within all
hospital settings.

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In 1860, Florence
Nightingale established a nursing
training schools at the St. Thomas
Hospital in London.
 In 1873, the Royal
Commission approved her reform to
improve sanitary conditions.
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

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The Royal Commission
declared that all hospitals implement
Nightingale’s protocol on sanitation due
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to the year alone the mortality rate in

Indian soldiers went from 69% to 10%
per 1,000 soldiers.
2 4 6

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In 1874, the first
professional American trained nurse was
Linda Richards who received her degree
at New England Hospital.

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In 1877, Richards
later advanced her practiced at
Nightingale’s School at St. Thomas
Hospital in London. This is where she
gained knowledge in charting, patient
records and aseptic technique.

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Later in Richard’s career established
nursing schools using Nightingale’s model
in Japan and United States.

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The first nursing
school in the USA was the Nursing
training school of women's Hospital of
Philadelphia, established in 1872 which
followed Nightingale’s theory of nursing.

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At the age of 38,
Nightingale was bedridden due to
contracting Crimean fever. Pursuiting
her dream did not stop here. Linda
Richards a former student, consulted
her for knowledge on managing care
during the Civil War.
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Dorothea Dix’s was a well known nurse in the
mid 1800’s for her devotion to mentally ill and
aiding the wounded during the Civil War.

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In 1848, Dix’s
lobbied at the federal level for a grant of
12 million acres of land as public
endowment for the mentally ill.

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Dorothea Dix lobby
was approved by the Congress but later
vetoed in 1854 by President Franklin
Pierce.

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In 1861, After the
Civil War broke out Dix’s volunteered
her services and was named the
superintendent of nurses.

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Dorothea Dix was
responsible for organizing field
hospitals, first aide stations, recruiting
nurses, managing supplies and setting
up training camps.

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After the war, Dorothea Dix went back
to working with the mentally ill and was
able to establish 32 mental institutions
across the United States.

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In the late 1800’s, nursing schools were
economically dependant on hospitals to
the advantage of student labor on site.

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Student nurses were known to be
obedient and complaint. They were
cheap help, delivered efficient patient
care was very cost effective when being
compared to a graduate nurse that are
hired in.

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After nursing training was complete
only handful of graduated nurses would
be able to find work in the hospital
setting due to the majority of care was
provided by the nursing students.

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In 1896, the American Nursing Association
was formed to protect the public from
danger of uneducated nursing personnel. It
was noticed that only 1/10 of the people
practicing nursing during this time period
were educated. This organization wanted all
graduated nurses to achieve licensure
following graduation prior to taking care of
the ill.
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In 1903, North Carolina passes the first
nurse licensure act in the United States.

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By 1921, 48 states followed North
Carolina’s pursuit the practice of
professional nursing licensure.

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These laws all changed during the Great
Depression states started to become more
lenient and lacked the reinforcement of
nurse licensure. Many uneducated nurses
were working with the sick just for pay. This
created a competition for positions within
the work field between the educated and the
uneducated.
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By the help of the ANA in 1940 it became
a mandated law that all nurses must be
licensed to practice in the nursing
profession.

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Thank you and God bless!

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