Chapter 1: “Professed” nursing: from duty to trade Lauren Heeke Cohort 7.

PART 1: THE NURSE AND THE

HOSPITAL BEFORE TRAINING

Chapter 1: “Professed” nursing: from duty to trade

Lauren HeekeCohort 7

NURSING’S ORIGINAL ROOTS Originally a duty, not a job “In sickness and in health” Obligation to family trumped any paid

position

WHAT DID NURSING ENTAIL IN THE 1800’S? Physical and emotional

strength, skill, and patience were required

Food and tonic preparation Dressing changes Application of plasters,

poultices, leeches Massages Emotional comfort and support By the time of the Civil War, the

“professed” nurse became more popular

CULTURE SHIFT (1840’S) Expanding industrial economy Importance of parenting in middle class

families “Duty” took on new meanings For some, caring as love could be

separated from caring as labor, and a woman’s virtues were maintained

WHAT KINDS OF NURSES?

Child nurse/nursemaid Wet nurse Midwife Monthly nurse Sick nurse

Work varied depending on the patient and family

Nurse had the freedom to diagnose and change doctor’s orders on her own as she gained experience

Reputation varied

RANKING The nurse was not as lowly

as a simple domestic, nor as highly ranked as a cook

Wage was between that of a seamstress and a cook

Gratuities became expected Became mostly work for

white, native-born, older, or poor women as domestic duties were performed mostly by slaves

Marital status

THE PROFESSED NURSE

Many women who survived their husbands became “professed nurses”

Home for Aged Women (Boston) was home for “respectable poor” (retired professionals) kept records that give insight to the lives of these women

Most retired nurses who lived here came from families of farmers

Between 1850-80 about half of these women had never married

After this, 60% were widowed, separated, or divorced and 40% had never married

A WOMAN’S FATE Older woman did not often “choose”

nursing but were left with few options Virginia Penny: “To make a kind and

sympathizing nurse, one must have waited, in sickness, upon those she loved dearly”

A sympathetic physician or druggist often allowed women to establish themselves as nurses

Nearly 25% of all women in the Home for Aged Woman had been a nurse at some point

AGE MATTERED! To be accepted as a nurse,

a woman needed to have many years’ experience caring for the sick

Younger nurses were allowed to do only some nursing, and needed practice and life experience to develop their “natural-born” tendencies

Due to sexuality and contagion, older women were more suited as nurses

STEPPING OUT OF THE HOME Most sickness, birthing, and dying took place in the

home As notions of middle class working women grew, nursing

became less important to concept of “womanhood” Nursing could easily become a trade to be “professed”

in the working world

NURSING BECOMES A TRADE Women were available to

perform nursing work for wages, and middle and upper class families were willing to pay

In mid 1800s, physicians began to give advice based on assumptions that families would have a relative or hired labor to deliver the ordered care

1870: 10,000 women claimed to be nurses

1940: 100,000 women claimed to be nurses

Remained primarily older women with no formal education

IN SUMMARY Nursing evolved from dutiful caretakers to nursing as

professionals -although still characterized by older,

uneducated women Paralleled women’s social status in American culture

over time By 1940s, nursing as a profession had gained

acceptance

REFERENCESReverby, S. M. (1987). “Professed” nursing: from duty to trade. Ordered to Care (11- 16). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.