ORIGIN OF NURSING
Woman is an instinctive
nurse, taught by Mother Nature. The nurse has always been a necessity,
thus lacked social status. In primitive times she was a slave, and in the
civilized era a domestic. Overlooked in the plans of legislators, and forgotten
in the curricula of pedagogues, she was left without protection and remained
without education. She was not an artisan who could obtain the help of
a hereditary guild; there was no Hanseatic League for nurses. Drawn from
the nameless and numberless army of poverty, the nurse worked as a menial
and obeyed as a servant. Denied the dignity of a trade, a devoid of professional
ethics, she could not rise above the degradation of her environment. It
never occurred to the Aristotles of the past that it would be safer for
the public welfare if nurses were educated instead of lawyers. The untrained
nurse is as old as the human race; the trained nurse is a recent discovery.
The distinction between the two is a sharp commentary on the follies and
prejudices of mankind.
- VICTOR ROBINSON
Nursing has been called the oldest
of arts and the youngest of professions (Donahue,1996). The history of
nursing is synonymous with the history of woman. The connotations of the
word nurse has changed over the course of history. The words nurse
and nursing have many meanings. The word nursing itself is derived
from the Latin nutrire "to nourish". The word nurse has its roots
in the Latin noun nutrix which means "nursing mother", often referring
to a wet nurse (a woman who breast fed the babies of others). The French
term nourrice also referred to a woman who suckled a child. The
original meaning of the English word was the same and the term first used
in English in the 13th century and its spelling underwent many forms, norrice,
nurice
or nourice,to the present, nurse.
Other dimensions were added to its
meaning throughout the evolution of the word - "a woman who cares for and
tends to young children". By the 16th century the meanings of the noun
included "a person, but usually a woman who waits upon or tends to the
sick". Two more components were added during the 19th century "training
of those who tend to the sick and carrying out of such duties under direction
of a physician".
Women because of maternal instinct
were considered "born nurses". The parental instinct, however, is present
in both sexes of all races. It is thought that women present a greater
degree of this due to their traditional role in the family. Yet the spirit
of nursing has no sexual boundaries. Human beings of both sexes have a
natural tendency to repond to helplessness or a threat to life from disease
or injury (Donahue, 1996).
The role of nurse expanded to care
of the sick, infirm, aged, handicapped as well as health promotion. In
ancient periods woman cared for her own family. As the evolution of nursing
continued she took care of members in her own tribe. With the development
of early civilizations nursing began to be performed outside the home.
The development of nursing depended
on two additional ingredients: skill and expertise, and knowledge (Donahue,
1996). Emphasis on the necessity of a knowledge base began to emerge as
more and more information about diseases and illnesses became available.
Nursing had become both an art and a science. The head, the heart, and
the hands have united to become modern day nursing's foundation.
Nursing continues to grow and evolve.
Nursing is based on society's needs and therefore exists only because of
society's need for such a service. It is difficult for nursing to rise
above society's expectations, limitations, resources, and culture of the
current age.
Donahue, M. Patricia, PhD, RN, FAAN, Nursing The Finest Art - An
Illustrated History, 2nd Edition, 1996, Mosby - Yearbook
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