History of Nursing

1. History and Development of Nursing
Profession
BY: Asma Falak
MSN(Silver Medal), PRN, CCN(Silver Medal),RM,RN
Nursing Instructor, SON,PIMS

2.  Elaborate the meaning of Nursing
 Explain the historical perspective
 Describe the stages of development of Nursing
 Explain the Nursing in Nursing in Prevedic, Vedic and
post Vedic Age
 Discuss early and late Medieval Age
 Nursing in Mughal Period
 Elaborate the nursing in Islam
 Founders of Modern Nursing

3.  Nursing began as desire to keep people healthy and to
provide assurance and comfort to sick.
 Although the general goal of nursing have remained
relatively the same over the centuries, ever advancing
science and changing of society’s needs have deeply
influence the practice of nursing .

4.  Women’s Role in Society
 Religion’s Role in Nursing
 War and Nursing
 Social Attitudes

5.  Women as mother, sister, wife and as a care taker for
the infant, children and family
 The traditional nursing role has always entailed
humanistic caring, nurturing, comforting and
supporting

6.  Many of the religions encourages benevolence such as
Christian value of “ love thy neighbors as thyself”
 Good Samaritan Law
 During the third & fourth centuries the empires who
converted to Christianity severed with their wealth for
homeless, poor and sick
 Formation of Knights like; Knights of Saint Johns and
Saint Lazarus.
 Early religious values such as self denial, spiritual
calling and devotion led Nursing

7.  During the Crimean war , the role of nurse emerged as
care taker. Role of Florence Nightingale
 Her environmental theory changed the concept of care.
 Her hygienic measures reduced the mortality rate in
militiary Berricks from 42% to 02%

8. Societal attitudes led nursing practice like:
 Before mid- 1800; there were no organizations,
education and societal status and women were
considered to stay at home for family care
 In 1800 Nurses working in the hospital were poorly
educated and some were incarcerated and criminals

9.  In the early 19th Century the Nurses were considered
doctor’s handmaidens
 In 19th Century the nurses were having the image of “
Angle of Mercy” in Florence Nightingale’s period
 The Heroin Image during the world war II due to taking
care of injured and fighting the poliomyelitis .

10. Nursing from ancient time to nineteenth century:
 Nursing in early civilization
 Nursing in Islam
 Nursing in Christianity
 Nursing in Middle ages
 Nursing in 15th to 19th Centuries

11. • There was no formal education available, so the
earliest nurses learned the tricks of the trade via
oral traditions that were passed down from one
generation to the next.
• The earliest nurses used plants and herbs to heal
and believed that evil spirits and magic could affect
one’s health.
• Illness was often viewed as a sign that something
was done to offend the priests or gods.

12. • The Egyptian healthcare system was the first to
maintain medical records starting at around 3000 B.C.
• Egyptian society was also the first to classify
medications and develop plans to maintain people’s
health.
• In ancient Rome, during the early Christian era,
deaconesses were selected by the church to provide care
for the sick.
• The deaconess Phoebe is considered to be the first
“visiting nurse” who provided expert home nursing
care.

13. • During the Renaissance period from 1500 to 1700,
a growing interest in science and technology led to
advances in medicine and public health.
• At the time, the rich paid for their sick to be cared
for at home, while the poor were cared for in
hospitals.
• Being hospitalized had negative connotations for
most people, as hospitals were considered places
where people went to die.

14.  More hospitals were built
 Nurses delivered custodial care and were dependent on
physicians for directions
 Nurse midwife was the oldest flourish role of nurses
 Nursing care was provided by monks and nuns

15. • Following the Protestant Reformation, monasteries and
convents were closed, and the lands were seized.
“Common” women who were too old or ill to find other
jobs started caring for the sick.
• A few hospitals in Protestant Europe have no regular
system of nursing.
• Female practitioners cared for neighbors and family, but
their work was unpaid and unrecognized.
• In Catholic areas, however, the tradition of nursing
nuns continued uninterrupted.

16.  In Islam, nurses provide healthcare services to
patients, families and communities as a manifestation
of love for Allah and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
 The nursing profession is not new to Islam.
 Islamic traditions include sympathy for and
responsibility toward those in need.
 This perspective had emerged during the development
of Islam as a religion, culture, and civilization.

17.  The first professional nurse in the history of Islam is
Rufaidah bint Sa’ad, also known as Rufaida Al-
Aslamia or Rufayda al-Aslamiyyah, who was born in
620, and lived at the time of Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH).
 Rufaidah received her training and knowledge in
medicine from her father, a physician, whom she
assisted regularly.
 At the time when Muhammed's early followers were
engaged in war, she led a group of volunteer nurses to
the battlefield to treat and care for the injured and
dying.

18.  Maham Anga (died 1562) was the chief nurse of the
Mughal emperor Akbar. She was a highly astute and
ambitious woman, she was the political adviser of the
teenage emperor and was responsible to provide care
during sickness

20. • Modern nursing began in the 19th century in
Germany and Britain.
• The practice had spread worldwide by about 1900.
British social reformers advocated for the formation
of groups of religious women to staff existing
hospitals in the first half of the 19th century. ◦ Some
influential women in the field of nursing during this
time period were Florence Nightingale, Clara
Barton, Linda Richards, Marry Mohny etc .

21. 12th May,1820- 13th August1910
Florence Nightingale

22.  Florence Nightingale,12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910)
was an English social reformer, statistician and the
founder of modern nursing.
 She was serving as a manager and trainer of nurses
during the Crimean War, in which she organized care
for wounded soldiers at Constantinople.
 She gave nursing a favorable reputation and became an
icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of
"The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded
soldiers at night

23.  She was an American nurse who
founded the American Red Cross.
 She was a hospital nurse in the
American Civil War, a teacher, and a
patent clerk.
 Since nursing education was not then
very formalized and she did not
attend nursing school.
 she provided self-taught nursing
care.

24.  She was the first professionally trained
American nurse.
 She established nursing training
programs in the United States and
Japan, and created the first system for
keeping individual medical records for
hospitalized patients.

25.  First African American Nurse
 She worked for the equality in promotion
in the profession for African and
American Nurses.
 In 1936, the National Association for
Colored Graduate Nurses founded the
Mary Mahoney Award in honor of her
achievements. This award is given to
nurses or groups of nurses who promote
integration within their field. The award
continues to be awarded today by the
American Nurses Association.

26.  Initially the nursing primarily focuses on the female
 School of Nursing for male was established in
late1880s
 Male nurses were denied admission to the missionary
Nurse Corps.
 1971 first male nurse in Michigan was Steve Miller

27. Summarization by students

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