When Was the First Nursing School Established?

Hippocrates has influences in modern nursing. Born in Greece 460BC, and still thought of as the Father of Medicine, today's doctors pledge the oath from his teachings before embarking upon their careers in medicine. Nurses repeat promises, like the Florence Nightingale Pledge, that come from the Hippocratic Oath. The Bible contains the first written history of nursing. The Talmud and other ancient writings mention looking after the ill and infirm. However, it was the 19th century that saw nursing come into modern practices.

Background

• From women in religious orders caring for the sick in the first century through the crusades from 1096 to 1291, change occurred. Men in the military replaced many women's orders, eliminated in the Crusades in northern Europe. Groups like the Knights Hospitallers of St. John in Jerusalem carried on with the nursing duties. Until the 1800s, most women caring for the ill in Europe were prisoners or prostitutes. The "dark ages of nursing" saw nursing degraded and thought of as the lowest of tasks.

History

• In ancient Rome, Saint Marcella's lovely home became a monastery where she shared her knowledge of nursing with others, earning the label first nurse educator. Theodor Fliedner, a pastor, founded Kaiserswerth School for Nursing in 1836 in Kaiserswerth, Germany. Before this time, most nurses had little or no real training. From this school grew the Lutheran Order of Deaconesses. Florence Nightingale began her studies at the Deaconess School in 1850. She was responsible for turning nursing into a valued career, as she began sharing her knowledge. By the late 1800s, many schools in Europe taught nursing.

Expansion

• Theodor Fliedner traveled to the United States with four nurse deaconesses. In 1849, the deaconesses began educating other nurses at the Pittsburgh Infirmary, now known as Passavant Hospital. Thus began the sharing of the knowledge of nursing skills in America. New York and Pennsylvania had some teaching of nurses at their hospitals prior to 1849. However, Pastor Fliedner and the four deaconesses, through their involvement with the Pittsburgh Infirmary initiated the first real nurses' training center in the United States. Florence Nightingale's philosophy of nursing influenced this new training center.

Progress

• Florence Nightingale's views of nursing as well as the respect she earned during the Crimean War, allowed her to open the first school of nursing outside a hospital in 1860. Located in London and financially independent, the school focused on teaching rather than service to a hospital. Her philosophies of nursing, still taught today, include cleanliness, individuality (nurse and patient), prevention, teamwork and continued learning, as well as others. By 1873, there were three teaching programs for nurses in the United States grounded in the Nightingale philosophies. These were Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York, Connecticut Training School at New Haven and Boston Training School in Massachusetts.

Landmarks

• The Civil War in the United States emphasized the need for nurses. Chosen as the Superintendent of Female Nurses by the Union Army in 1861, Dorothea Dix recruited nurses to care for the wounded soldiers. Clara Barton, among her recruits, founded the organization now known as the American Red Cross. Dorothea Dix led crusades to implement better care for the mentally ill. Mary Adelaide Nutting and Isabel Robb were involved with the creation of the first college based nursing curriculum at Teacher College of Columbia University in 1907. Thanks to the dedication of persons like this, today's nurses, male and female, have great educational opportunities and many career choices.