PART 1: THE NURSE AND THE HOSPITAL BEFORE TRAINING Chapter 1: “Professed” nursing: from duty to trade Lauren Heeke Cohort 7
Dec 24, 2015
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.