The document provides a historical overview of nursing from ancient civilizations to modern times. It describes how nursing began as assisting with childbirth and caring for the sick. Nursing evolved with various cultures and religions, including establishing hospitals under Islam in the 9th century. Florence Nightingale is cited as the founder of modern nursing, transforming military hospitals during the Crimean War in the 1850s and establishing nursing schools. The document summarizes some influential early nursing leaders who advanced the profession.

1. Historical Perspectives of Nursing and
Health Care
Hafiz M Irfan RN, BSN, MSPH

2. Contents
• Introduction
• Stages of Nursing
History
• Early Civilization
• Ancient Cultures
• Islam and
Nursing
• Christianity
• Mughal period
• Founder of Nursing
• Nursing Leaders

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

4. Stages of Nursing
• Nursing from Ancient times to the
nineteenth century
Early Civilization
Islam
Christianity
Middle Ages
Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century

5. Early Civilization
• Egyptian physicians are believed to have
specialized in certain diseases (such as
internal diseases, fractured bones, and
wounds). They also hired women, later known
as midwives, to assist with childbirth. These
women were the first records nurses.

6. Early Civilization
• Greece
The Greeks believed in Apollo, the Greek
god of healing and prayed to him for magic
cures for their illness.
400 B.C., the famous Greek physician
Hippocrates believed that disease had natural,
not magical, causes.

7. Early Civilization
• Roman Empire
After 300 B.C., early physicians built on
the groundwork of their Egyptian and Greek
predecessors.
The Romans are best known for
advances in the health of the public.

8. Early Civilization
• India
In ancient India, early hospitals were
staffed by male nurses who were required to
meet four qualifications: knowledge of the
manner in which drugs should be prepared for
administration, cleverness, devotedness to
the patient, and purity of mind and body.

9. Islam and Nursing
• Ethos of Health Care Service
• 1st Muslim Nurse Rufaidah Bint Sa’ad
• Holistic Approach to health care service
• Nursing in Hospitals in 830

10. Mughal Period and Nursing
• Maham a great lady served as a wet Nurse of
King Akbar in Mughal Empire
• She nursed during Wars in India and
Afghanistan

11. Christianity
• With the beginning of Christianity, nursing
began to have a formal and more clearly
defined role.
• Led by the belief that love and caring for
others were important, women made the first
visits to sick people, male gave nursing care
and buried the dead.
• Nursing became a respected vocation.

12. Middle Ages
• More hospitals were built.
• Nurses delivered custodial care and depended
on physicians for direction.
• Nurse midwifery, as one of the oldest nursing
roles, flourished.
• Much nursing care was provided by monks
and nuns, which was segregated by sex.

13. Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century
• The extensive population growth in cities, the
lack of hygiene and sanitation and the
increasing poverty in urban centers resulted in
serious health problem.
• Society changed from one with a religious
orientation to one that emphasized warfare,
exploration, and expansion of knowledge.

14. Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century
• Many monasteries and convents closed,
leading to a tremendous shortage of
people to care for the sick.
• Women who had committed crimes were
recruited into nursing in lieu of serving
sentences.
• The only acceptable nursing role was within
a religious order where services were
provided as part of Christianity charity.

15. The founder of Nursing
• Period of Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
was born in 12 May
1820 in a wealthy
family;

16. The founder of Nursing
• Nightingale-Education
Her education included the mastery of several
ancient and modern language, literature,
philosophy, history, science, mathematics,
religion, art and music.

17. The founder of Nursing
• Formal Training
she was determined to become a nurse since
she believed she was “called by God to help
others and to improve the well-being of
mankind”;
she visited Kaiserswerth and received nurse’s
training at 1850 for three months;

18. The founder of Nursing
• The lady with lamp
the outbreak of the Crimean War gave
Nightingale an opportunity for achievement;
Nightingale and her nurses transformed the
military hospitals by setting up diet kitchens, a
laundry, recreation centers, and reading
rooms, and organizing classes for orderlies;

19. The founder of Nursing
• Period of Nightingale
after the war, Nightingale established the
Nightingale Training School for Nursed at St.
Thomas’ hospital in London; the school served
as a model for other training school;
as the founder of modern nursing, Florence
Nightingale established the first nursing
philosophy based on health maintenance and
restoration.

20. Nursing Leaders
Clara Barton (1812-1956)
• She was school
teacher who
volunteered as nurse
during American civil
war.
• Barton is noted for her
role in establishing the
American Red Cross.

21. Walt Whitman
• Men served as
nurses. One notable
nurse during
America Civil War
(1861-73) was Walt
Whitman.
• He was a poet and
writer who served as
Hospital Nurse in
Washington.

22. Nursing Leaders
Lillian Wald (1867-1940):
• Is considered the
founder of public health
nursing.
• She offer trained
nursing services to the
poor.

23. Nursing Leaders
Liviana Dock (1858-1956)
• Her campaigned for
legislation to allow
nurses rather than
physicians to control
their profession.