
Many books on the history of nursing go back only to the 19th century; many give Florence Nightingale and her role in the care of the sick and wounded in the Crimean War as a starting point to define the origins of the modern professional nursing. It is true that she was a key figure in nurse training, but formal nurse training pre-dates her by two millennia.
The reality is that professional nursing i.e. nursing and the care of others for a living and, therefore, remuneration goes back to at least 250 years BCE. It is, however, those 100 years of the 20th century that was the pivotal century when nursing ceased to be a job that was no longer seen to be unsuitable for an upper and middle class woman because it had been seen as ‘common’ and something only suitable for working, or at best, lower middle class women. One factor that was and now, to a lesser degree, is overlooked is the role men played in 20th century nursing.
Through time it has been seen as a calling, or a vocation, practically the equivalent of taking ‘holy orders’ and being ‘ministering angels’. Today, in the 21st century, it is a job for highly trained, degree educated people who work in a variety of different and, in many cases, complex and highly technical environments.
So, when did modern professional nursing begin and where can the starting point be defined? Even up to the early 19th century nursing was not an identifiable, stand-alone, occupation or profession. In the United Kingdom, the role and function of nursing was not regularised until 1923 when the General Nursing Council’s register became operational and since then it has become possible to draw a boundary between professional nursing and non-professional nursing, and this is true of most western societies.
Details
- Publication Date
- May 15, 2021
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781008904934
- Category
- History
- Copyright
- All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License
- Contributors
- By (author): Kevin Hargreaves
Specifications
- Pages
- 354
- Binding Type
- Paperback Perfect Bound
- Interior Color
- Black & White
- Dimensions
- Crown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)