What Is the History of Health Care & Nursing?

Over 50 years ago, informed health care providers, along with the development of new medicines and vaccines, helped improve a patient's chance of survival. In prior centuries, nuns provided limited nursing care in poorhouses to the destitute and infirm, while doctors attended only those with affluence at home.

Colonial Period

• Practicing medicine required no experience or certification in the 1700s, but filthy hospitals attributed to an increase in patient deaths, which led to undesirable working conditions. Nursing offered paltry pay, if any, and was not a respected profession. As punishment, prostitutes and prisoners sometimes tended the sick, which did little to aid in recovery.

Nursing Pioneer

• In 1851, Britain's Florence Nightingale confronted society's opposition to nursing when she traveled to Germany for training. In 1854, Nightingale and a team of nurses arrived in Turkey to care for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War. Deplorable hospital conditions incited the caregivers to scrub and sterilize the facility and all medical equipment, and the soldiers' survival rate soared under Florence Nightingale's guidance. She is referred to as the founder of modern nursing.

Modernized Equipment

• By the 1900s, new medical devices, including thermometers, X-rays, stethoscopes and improved microscopes, aided those in the health care field. Hypodermic needles and anesthesia equipment allowed for an easier way to administer drugs into the body, and laboratory research was on the rise.

Respected Field

• A degree in nursing, clinical work experience, passing the national license exam (NCLEX-RN), and maintaining the nursing license are currently mandatory for those seeking nursing employment. Unlike centuries ago, today's nurses are not only educated and skilled, but highly regarded in their field.

Awareness

• At one time, rudimentary medical practices prevailed because no other treatments were known, but health care has greatly progressed over the centuries. Gone are purging, bleeding and the toxic drugs that were once administered by uneducated individuals. In their place are newly developed vaccines and antibiotics, and dedicated health care professionals striving to improve patients' lives.