Colonial Nursing Instruments

Nursing in the colonial era was not publically recognized as a medical profession. As a result, nurses were seen as servants of the hospital or doctor with which they were associated. Nurses didn't receive any formal training and the nurse's duties were limited to assisting the doctors with assorted tasks.

The Duties of a Colonial Nurse

• Because nurses didn't receive any kind of formal training in colonial times, their responsibilities were limited by comparison with a modern nurse. Nurses in the American army during the Revolutionary War were in charge of cooking food for the sick or injured, cleaning and making the beds, dressing injuries and applying medicine. Nurses associated with the military were considered camp followers and many of them were soldiers' wives.

Medicines

• The preparation of herbal medicines was part of a nurse's duties and some women even prepared and sold their medicines professionally. The poultice (a mixture of moist herbs that can be pressed against an inflamed or sore part of the body) is considered one of the primary instruments of colonial nursing. Medicines could also be applied in the form of a bolus (a large dose of medicine, similar to a pill).

Splints, Tourniquets and Sutures

• Splints, tourniquets and sutures were all used in Colonial medicine. Splints were used to immobilize broken bones, tourniquets were used to stop bleeding by tying off the wound and sutures were stitches used to sew the edges of a wound together. Smallpox innoculations were also performed by making a cut in the smallpox sore of a recovering patient, pulling a thread through the cut, and then pulling the same thread through the arm of the person being innoculated.

Bandages and Incense

• Bandages were one of a nurse's primary tools, as the bandaging and dressing of wounds was one of the most important jobs of a Colonial nurse. In addition, nurses were in charge of burning incense made out of herbs in order to fumigate the hospital and purify the air.