The Importance Of Holding A Caregiver Position

Nursing care was unscientific and consisted of assisting patients with usual body functions; and was typically administered by women of a religious order or by women who by nature of their lifestyle frequented hospitals. Hospital care was for the poor and destitute; since home based medical care was better than risking additional infections in the dirty, crowded, and disease-ridden hospitals. During the typhus epidemic of 1852, hospital staff and patients suffered the greatest morbidity and mortality. (Ranade , 199817-19)

In the preindustrial era, 1800s, the United States fell behind other countries in health services. There was no medical training until around 1870 (Shi & Singh, 2013). Medical training began with students training under the supervision of physicians. Physicians saw patients by making house calls. Health care was delivered in a free market (Shi & Singh, 2013). No one had insurance so costs were out of pocket. For most Americans, this was a problem and some rural areas relied on folk medicine to heal the sick. The medical institutions during this era were not sanitized properly and nurses were not trained to practice safety and hygiene care. The government provided facilities for elderly, chronically ill patients, and clinics that offered free care.

The Nursing Practice has come a very long way from what is use to be. Nursing was an unwanted profession, difficult and challenging in many ways. It was thanks to the dedication, great effort and sacrifice of many determined nurses that paved the way for contemporary nursing. Dating back to around middle of the first century Christians use to care and tend the sick, serving as one of the first nurses that history can account. When the small pox epidemic occurred in around 165 to 185 AD, these Christians served as nurses. Now, we can imagine how hard it would have been to be a nurse in those days. The conditions were deplorable, with barely any hygiene. There were harsh conditions to work as nurse, and viruses like the measles outbreak in

Changes in the late 1800's resulted in universities admitting women, thus allowing them to explore many more educational opportunities. These factors together provided the impetus for establishment of hospitals and schools to formally train nurses, with many schools opening for the first time in the 1870s. At the same time, though the need for nurses had been established and the importance of their role within the realm of medical care recognized, there was a great deal of opposition to the proposal that nurses should be formally educated. This attitude was epitomized by a well-known article of the time published in 1908, 'The over-trained nurse' in which the author asserted that nursing was not a “profession” but merely an “honorable calling”. Consistent with this notion, public perception viewed nursing as a job that women were generally suited to perform rather than one which required special skill and was even equated with a religious “calling”. This view, influenced by early nursing's relationship with religious orders remained far into the 20th century.(Lasseter, 1999).

One aspect of nursing that has changed since the early 1800’s is nursing education. There was no question about the credibility of the women providing care to soldiers after the war. For many years untrained nurses and consequently nursing students cared the sick without any supervision. In 1873, the need for educated nurses was sought but was opposed by untrained physicians who thought trained nurses would pose a threat to their jobs (Gary & Hott, 1988). “Nurses have evolved

Have you ever wondered what our Healthcare system was like in the 1800’s? Have you never wondered what they did to cure disease, treat broken bones, how society back then as a culture acted, and among other things why woman had been the main pioneer of this field? This is what my research topic consists of and below you’ll find my opinions and sources that I have used to come to the conclusion I have to illuminate the Healthcare system in the 1800’s.

With new advancements in medicine, the United States healthcare industry shifted hospitals from being known as ‘death trapes’ to respected establishment, a safe haven place for the ill. Chapter 4 summaries dramatic shift in hospital and healthcare industry from1870 to 1910. Before 1870, hospitals were charitable, not tax funded entities and physicians tried to make the hospital as the source of medical care for their economic advantage. The chapter continues to describe how the advancement of science had helped increase the demand for hospitals, but it was more urbanization, lack of self-sufficiency, and new reputation toward cleanliness that brought increased populations together with the need for assistance from hospitals. “Before anesthesia

The practice of nursing started in the past around the Middle Ages, where women in primitive societies where made to take care of the sick whether they wanted to or not. For example, in Ethiopia among the Zuni tribe, if a baby is born with part of the placenta covering the face, it was taken as a sign that the baby would be marked as one destined to become a caregiver. (Henly & Moss, 2007). In many societies, nurses were mostly untrained women who helped deliver babies or were wet nurses. According to The History of Nursing (2013) “religious figures like nuns had more training and cared for the sick. However, by the 13th through the 16th centuries, religious orders felt as if it was their duty to care for the physical needs of people as well as their spiritual needs and formed sisterhoods to carry out this mission. In 1645, Jeanne Mance, a nurse from France, established the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal in Canada, the first hospital in North America. By the 18th century, the United States was beginning to realize the need for organized nursing services. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond opened Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation 's first hospital. It served the poor and homeless in Philadelphia. When the American Revolutionary War broke

As America became increasingly urbanized in the mid 1800s, hospitals, first built by city governments to treat the poor, began treating the not-so-poor. Doctors, with increased authority and power, stopped traveling to their sickest patients and began treating them all under one roof. Unlike hospitals in Europe where patients were treated in large wards, American patients who could pay were treated in smaller, often private rooms.

The folk image of nursing is one that is seen in movies or read about in books. This is the image of the medicine man or village healer. The knowledge in this type of nursing was handed down one generation at a time and primarily cared for the children and elderly of the social groups. The religious image of nursing is from a time when nuns or religious ambassadors took over the primary responsibilities of taking care of the poor, sick and elderly. Not too far a concept from this was the servant image of nursing which was marked by a time when the undesirables of society were charged with caring for the sick and elderly. During times of war, the need for nurses increased and

When it comes to the healthcare system, the root of it can be tracked back to the nineteenth century. At that time, compared to a private company, most of the service providers were hospitals, which provide a people free-charge service and inexpensive medicine because they were not profit-oriented institutions. To some degree, the expenditure of a household on healthcare at that time is lower than the one of a modern household. Hospitals played an important role in offering the disadvantaged healthcare resources and fundamental treatment. As the number of patients increased, they still needed working capital to support their expenditure. Most sources of money were from

It was the twentieth century when two-thousand hospitals were put up in the United States. After the wars ended, there were few nursing jobs because of the large number of nurses. As a result, nursing became an “honorable profession,” which required college degrees. Technological advances were well thought out and processed as nursing began to thrive. People began to study an environment in which the sick healed. Scientists and doctors developed a routine that would help them study the human body more precisely.

Throughout history, society has considered women to be the natural caregivers of children, family, and community. Women were naturally thought of as nurses because the act was said to be an extension of their role in the home. They were called in to homes to help deliver babies or as wet nurses to breastfeed. In the 1800’s, women began taking care of soldiers. It was then that Florence Nightingale cared for soldiers in the Crimean War. During this time she revolutionized the role by setting standards of cleanliness and reducing infection. The legacy of nursing continues to be enriched by those who continue to follow the example of nursing pioneers. They refuse to be bound by others’ views

In 1873 there were four hospitals with a school of nursing with in them. These hospitals were the New England Hospital for Women and Children; Massachusetts General Hospital; New Haven Hospital; and Bellevue Hospital.( 1996.Nursing. Dictionary of American History) The number of hospitals and hospital with nursing schools inside of them increased, because the hospitals soon found that the mortality and morbidity decreased with improved nursing care.( Nursing. Dictionary of American History) The shaping and molding of the nursing profession made the hospitals that we know today to be possible. In the 1860’s and 1870’s more Americans went to the hospitals for treatment because of the emphasis on hospital cleanliness, and the professional nurse.( Kellison, Kimberly. 1997-1998) Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first black graduate nurse in 1879.( Hine, Darlene,C., 1996) From 1893 to 1900 the number of nursing schools inside hospitals increased 225 to 432, and the number of hospitals increased from 178 to over 4000.( 1996.Nursing. Dictionary of American History) Nursing became considerably more popular and “by 1920, 54,953 women were in nursing

In the world history of nursing, roots can be traced to religion, mythology, and Eastern and Western societies. The ancient Egyptians utilized perhaps the first formal nurses, hiring them to assist in childbirth. It is from these beginnings that today's midwives evolved.