Reference:
- Lecturers (Wong, Luansing)
According to Buenavista, there are four periods in the history of nursing:
- Intuitive (Medieval) Period (Pre-17th century): nursing was based on experience and intuition. No formal training, mentorship systems, or exhaustive scientific bases were in place. Compassion and instinct were the core of nursing acts, mainly performed by women.
- The first surgery was performed in this period, known as Trephination. It was meant to allow evil spirits to leave the body by producing a stoma on the head.
- Apprentice (Middle-Age, Dark) Period (17th to 19th century): mentorship took hold, with new nurses being taught by experienced nurses, often on-the-job. Nursing was done out of advocacy. Many beggars, slaves, and prostitutes were trained as nurses during periods of war for low-cost manpower, leading to a poor social perspective on nurses.
- It was in this period that the Kaiserswerth Institute was founded, the first training ground for nurses in Germany.
- It was also in this period that Florence Nightingale, the “mother of modern nursing” performed her contributions to the nursing profession.
- Educative (Nightingale) Period (19th to 20th century): the period in which nursing education took hold, allowing the profession to become standardized and scientific.
- In the Crimean war, Nightingale employed and shared her environmental and sanitary theories in giving care to wounded soldiers, with mortality rates being drastically reduced. Her rounds at the infirmary at night gave her the iconic “Lady with the Lamp” title.
- Nightingale founded her own institution for training nurses, naming it the Nightingale Training School in 1860, coining the phrase that nursing is an art and a science.
- Contemporary (Modern) Period (20th Century to Present): nursing has become a well-established profession. Licensure became the standard for being recognized and practicing as a nurse, spanning from a Bachelor’s (BSN) to a Master’s degree in Nursing (MAN, MSN), and a PhD/Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).
According to Tomey and Alligood, there are five eras in the history of contemporary nursing:
- Curriculum Era: addressing the question of what prospective nurses should study to learn how to be a nurse.
- Research Era: with nurses aiming for higher education, nurses embraced research as a path to new nursing knowledge.
- Graduate Education Era: in tandem with the research era, Master’s degree programs in nursing emerged to meet the public need for nurses with specialized clinical nursing education.
- Theory Era: the natural outgrowth of the two previous eras— it became obvious that research without theory produced isolated information. This era involved doctoral education in nursing with an emphasis on theory development.
- Theory Utilization Era: middle-range theory became emphasized to bridge the gap between abstract grand theories and specific empirical observations.