the first lesson in the nursing history curriculum. gives a brief overview of the ancient civilization and healthcare beliefs and practices

1. CARE OF THE SICK AMONG PRIMITIVE
PEOPLE
H. Deepani, Nursing Tutor, School of Nursing, Colombo

2. NURSING
 Oldest of the art; youngest of the profession..
 Honorable profession
 A great humanitarian service for all people

3. Nurse
 Comes from a Latin word “to nourish” or “to
cherish
 One who cares for the sick, the injured, and the
physically, mentally, and emotionally disabled
 One who advise and instruct individuals,
families, groups and communities in the
prevention, treatment of illness and diseases
and in the promotion of health.
 An essential member of a health team who
cares for individuals, families and communities
in disease and illness prevention and in the
promotion of health.

4. Florence Nightingale
 Nursing is the act of
utilizing the
environment of the
patient to assist him in
his recovery.

5. Virginia Henderson
 Nursing is the act of assisting
the individual, sick or well, in
the performance of those
activities contributing to health
or its recovery (or to a peaceful
death) that he would perform
independently if he had the
necessary strength, will, or
knowledge, and to do this in
such a way as to help him gain
independence as rapidly as
possible

6. Patient
 Comes from a Latin word, “to Suffer” or “to
Bear”
 An individual who is in the state of physical,
mental, and emotional imbalance
 An individual who seeks for nursing
assistance, medical assistance, or for
surgery due to illness or a disease.
 Is an individual who is waiting or undergoing
medical or surgical care. One who is
physically or mentally disabled.

7. NURSING HISTORY
 As an instinctive response to the desire to keep
health the sick
 Responsibility – nurturing children, care of the
elderly and the sick
 Spans from the history of mankind
 Providing care and comfort for those suffering
from illness and injury.
 The first nurse – the first mother

8. PREHISTORIC ERA
 Supernatural beliefs on Illness
 Disease seen as “magic” “sin” or“ punishment”
 Rituals to chase evils from the body
 Songs, dance, costumes made from animal
skin to scare and chase evil spirits by Medicine
man (WEDA)

9. PREHISTORIC ERA CTD..
 Making hole in the skull (Trephining) to take evil
out
 Hitting the aching body part
 Herbs to induce vomiting to relieve abdominal
pain
 Black magic –to make people sick/ suffer
 White magic – to cure illness

10. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF NURSING
IN OTHER COUNTRIES

12. EGYPT (BC 3000-1750)
 By the Nile river
 North Africa
 Present largest Arab
country
 Great cultural
accomplishments
 First stone document
(Hieroglyphics)
 Great architecture,
agriculture methods

14.  First book/ paper -Papyrus
 Pyramids – Tomb of Paraoh
 Mummy – dead body of Paraoh covered with
bandages
 Embalming of body – knowledge of A & P
 365 days year , 30 days and 12 months –
Calendar (remaining 5 days for worship of
Gods)
 Place to worship Gods - Church

15. THREE PERIOD OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY
 The old kingdom (3000- 2000 BC)
 The middle kingdom (2000- 1750 BC)
 The new kingdom

16. GODS OF EGYPT
1. Osiris
 God of sun/ vegetation (agriculture)
 Married to his sister Isis
 Reborn after death to conceive a son (king od
the dead)

17. 2. Isis
 God of earth
 Wife and sister of Osiris
 Mother of Horus
 Introduced mummy and rebirth
3. Horus
 Son of Osiris and Isis
 God of light and sky

18. 4. Seth
 God of desert and storms
 Associate with chaos and darkness
 Killed his brother Osiris for crown
5. Imhotep
 A real person known as a God
 A skillful person in several aspects
 A priest doctor
 Founder of astronomy and architecture
 Construction of first stone pyramid

19. MEDICINE AND HEALTH PRACTICES
 Priest doctor – priest communicated with God to
cure illness
 Use of herb (radish, garlic, onion) as Abx
 Powdered liver (vit A) for night blindness
 Suturing wounds
 Embalming dead body
 Cleanliness and hygiene important
 Physiotherapy and heat therapy
 Papyri documenting for medical students’
reference

20.  Trepanning for head injuries
 Teeth extractions
 Autopsy (post mortem) and surgery
 use of honey (antiseptic), Mint (gastric
ailment), pomegranate ( parasite and worm
infestations), yeast (ulcers, gastric diseases),
honey and milk (respiratory diseases)
 Punishment for doctors if treatment incorrect

22. NURSING
 Not prominent
 Wet mother (lactating
women for motherless
children)
 Temple women –
beginning of nursing
?(concern on hygiene
and health)
 Care for injured from
war
 Home based care

23. INVENTION OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
 Back ink
 Potter’s wheel
 First ox-drawn plows
 365 day calendar
 Paper
 First pyramids
 Organized labor
 Hieroglyphics
 sails

24. INVADERS
1. Arabians (establishment of Arabic culture)
2. Great king Alexander
3. Roman invasion –Julius Caesar ( Roman
culture)

25. BABYLONIA (BC 4000-3000)
 Babylon - Gate of the Gods
 Famous city of Mesopotamia
 The town of Babylon was located along the
Euphrates River
 King Hammurabi united all Mesopotamia under
one flag – Babylonia
 Cradle of all cultures
 Hanging garden ( a wonder of world)
 In present-day Iraq, about 50 miles south of
Baghdad..

27. LIONS GATE

29.  Code of Low of
Hammurabi
 Stone document written
on human rights
 Oldest stone document
in the world

30. LAW OF HAMMURABI
 1st record on the medical practice
 Established the medical fees
 Discouraged experimentation
 Specific doctor for each disease
 Punishment for doctors for wrong treatment
 Right of patient to choose treatment between
the use of medicine, or surgical procedure

32. HEALTH BELIEFS AND PRACTICE
 Disease caused by sin or bad behaviors
 Fortune telling
 Palm reading
 Personal hygiene important
 Preventive aspects of disease highlighted
 Tampoon for nasal bleeding
 Nursing not prominent
 Home care or care at temples

33. PERSIA (BC 500)
 Neighbor to Babylonia
 Present Iran
 “Zendavesta” – sacred
document by Zoroaster
 Considered earth, water
and fire as sacred
things
 Medicine or nursing not
prominent

35. GREECE (BC 2000)
 Present Bulgaria and
Turkey
 Great history in philosophy,
mathematics and science
 Minoans & Mycenaean –
first two population groups
 Belief on several Gods

37. GODS OF GREECE
1. Apollo
 A powerful sky God
 Son of the Zeus & Leto
 Twin brother of artemis
 God of prosperity, harmony & Medicine
 Ability to tell the future

38. 2. Artemis
 Daughter of Zeus & Leto
 Sister of Apollo
 Goddess of wild life & Patrons of hunters/
Goddess of moon
 Important Goddess in lives of women ( Virginity)
 Protector of chastity and nurture of the young

39. 3. Askelepious ( Blameless physician)
 Occupied in medicine
 Wife The Soothing Goddess
 Three daughters
-Hygeia (Hygiene)
-Panacea (Treatment with drugs)
-Medritina (Community Health)
 Youngest son – cure of illness

40. GREEK PHILOSOPHERS
1. Hippocrates
 Born in 460 BC in the Island of Cos
 Son of a priest physician
 Observed that the cause of disease is not
supernatural but a natural process
 Father of modern medicine
 Introduced the Role of the physician –aid the
natural resistance of the body to overcome
metabolic imbalance

41.  Hippocrates  Archimedes

42. 2. Archimedes
 Mathematician, inventor and astronomer
 Introduced the theory of hydrostatics, statics and
principle of lever
 Invented screw pump and siege engines
3. Plato
 Mathematician and a philosopher
 Student of Socrates
 Founder of the Academy in Athens (1st institution
of higher education of western world)
 Institution closed in 529 A.D. (?threat to
Christianity)

43.  Aristotle
 Plato

44. 4. Aristotle
 Philosopher and polymath
 A student of Plato
 Great writer (physics, poetry, music, logic,
linguistics, politics, ethics, biology & Zoology)
 His writing laid the foundation for
comprehensive system of western philosophy
5. Alexander the Great
 Born in Pella, Greece in 356 BC.
 Student of Aristotle
 King of Macedon (undefeated king)

45. 6. Homer
 Author of Iliad and Odyssey (Value of ancient
Greeks)
 Greatest ancient epic poet
8. Socrates
 Great contributor for the field of ethics and
logic
 Provided foundation for western philosophy

46. HEALTH CARE PRACTICE IN ANCIENT GREEK
 Initial belief
– disease as a punishment of God
- Cure as a gift from God
 5th century BC- material causes for illness
(identified Four humors)
- Sanguine – blood (liver)
- Choleric - yellow bile (Gallbladder)
- Melancholic - black bile (Spleen)
- Phlegmatic –Phlegm (Brain)

47.  Use of surgical instruments (forceps, scalpels,
catheters etc..)
 Maintaining personal hygiene and cleanliness
of patients
 Use of hot water bath
 Massage techniques
 Xenodochian – waiting halls and treatment
center for foreigners
 Iatrion – similar to present dispensary or OPD
 Nursing not prominent

49. ROME (753 B.C.)
 Rome was founded by
Romulus and Remus
who were raised by a
she-wolf
 Developed around
“Tiber river” in Italy

50.  Worship Gods at home with small statue
 Several Romance languages derived from Latin
(Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese)
 Development of western Alphabet
 Julius Caesar (BC 100-44) ruled as a dictator
 His nephew Octavian became Rome's first
emperor, assuming the title Augustus. (Golden
Era of Rome)
 Very rich people

53.  During the reign of Augustus, Christ was born,
 Christians were persecuted until the 4th
century
 Rome became the main centre of Christianity
 Finally, in 1870, Rome became the capital of
the newly unified Italy.
 Romans adopted Greek mythology into their
own
 Giving Roman names to Greek Gods ??

55. Greek name Roman name
1 Zeus Jupiter (Thunder, Lightening)
2 Goddess Hera Juno (Protector of Rome)
3 Area Mars (God of war)
4 Hermes Mercury (God of trade)
5 Poseidon Neptune (God of sea)
6 Goddess Aphrodite Venus (love & beauty)
7 Apollo Apollo (Music, Poetry)
8 Goddess Athena Minerva (Goddess of wisdom)
9 Goddess Demeter Ceres (Goddess of agriculture)
10
.
Artemis Diana (Goddess of moon)

56. HEALTH BELIEFS AND PRACTICE
 Medicine adopted from Greece
 Nursing not prominent
 Great concern on hygiene (bath several times a
day)
 Sewage systems to carry out waste
 Claudius Galen – Greek Physician, established
Hippocrates ideas in Rome, learned at medical
school in Alexandria in Egypt. Dissected pigs and
apes to learn anatomy

57. CHINA (3000 BC)
 The oldest continuous civilization in the world
 Culture based on Confucius teaching (551- 479
BC)
 Four main dynasties
– Xia (2000- 1600BC)
- Shang (1600- 1046BC)
-Qin (221-206BC)
-Han (206- 220)

59.  Buddhist philosophy in200 BC
 Development of temples and statues
 Recognition for women
 Inventions
-compass
-gun powder
-paper
-steel
-porcelain

61. HEALTH BELIEF AND PRACTICE
 Health & illness based on “Yin & Yang theory”
 Imbalance –disease & Balance – good health
 Preventive aspects (acupuncture, hydrotherapy,
massage, exercises)
 Medical document “The recipes for fifty two
ailments” -186 BC (chanting spells, herbal
medicine, cauterization for warts & snake bites,
possession by demons )

63.  By 100 BC, major center of medical research
 World best doctors
 “Neijing” (a book about medicine) explained
the causes for diseases
 Ge Hong (300 AD) – first Doctor who wrote
correct treatment for malaria
 Sun Simiao – wrote how should a doctor
behave
 Hunang Tie – The Canon of Internal Medicine
(circulation, pulse, observation methods etc..)

64. PALESTINE
 Present Israel
 Natives – Hebrew
 Slaves of Greece for a long period
 Moses freed the from slavery
 Jerusalem – centre of politics
 Era of David & Solomon 1100 BC ( Golden era
of Palestine)
 Babylonian invasion by 2nd Nebuchadnezzar
and destroy the cities

65.  Origin of Old Testament (Part of the Bible)
-world creator
- highly believed in God
 2nd invasion by Rome

66. HEALTH BELIEFS AND PRACTICE
 Priest doctors
 Concerned on food hygiene, personal hygiene,
Food inspection, communicable disease,
isolation techniques )
 Great ladies – Ruth Jessibal, Deborah,
Robecca, Lady Macbeth)
 Nursing not prominant

67. INDIA
 Begins with Indus Valley
Civilization
 6th century –
emergence of
Buddhism

70. HEALTH BELIEFS AND PRACTICE
 Origin of Ayurveda
-diseases, symptoms & cure
-herbal medicine
 Charaka Samhitha – Sanskrit text on Ayurveda
medicine (standard text book)
 Shushruta Samhitha – Ayurveda & Surgery
 Evidence on Plastic surgery, dental extraction,
cataract extraction

71.  Study of human
anatomy with dissection
of dead bodies
 Origin of “Yoga” –
system of exercise for
physical & mental
wellbeing

72. ESTABLISHMENT OF NURSING
 Beginning with young men
 Women for child birth
 1664 – hospital for soldiers in Madras
 1797 – Lying-in- Hospital for poor in Madras
 1854 – Training School for Midwives In Madras
 1867 – St. Stephens Hospital in Delhi (1st
nursing training for girls)
 1908 – trained nurses association

73.  1918 – nursing schools at Delhi & Karachi (
Supervisors miss. Griffin & Miss Graham)
 1926 – registration council for nurses (Madras)
 31st December 1947 –The Indian Nursing
council
 1960 – college of nursing Delhi (master’s
degree and post graduate programs)

74. THANK YOU