Search

Aims This article explores the care British nurses provided to victims of typhus during the Second World War. Background Typhus is associated with poverty and overcrowding. During wars in the pre-antibiotic era, civilians were particularly susceptible to epidemics, which military governments feared would spread to their troops. Design This discussion paper draws on archival data from three typhus epidemics in the Second World War to examine the expert work of British nurses in caring for victims during these potential public health disasters. Data Sources The published sources for the paper include material from nursing and medical journals published between 1940-1947. Archival sources come from the National Archives in Kew, the Wellcome Library and the Army Medical Services Museum, between 1943-1945. Of particular interest is the correspondence with Dame Katharine Jones from nurses on active service overseas. Implications for Nursing Whilst epidemics of typhus are now rare, nurses in the present day may be required to care for the public in environments of extreme poverty and overcrowding, where life-threatening infectious diseases are prevalent. This article has demonstrated that it is possible for expert and compassionate nursing to alleviate suffering and prevent death, even when medical technologies are unavailable. Conclusion Expert and compassionate care, adequate nutrition and hydration and attention to hygiene needs are crucial when there are limited pharmacological treatments and medical technologies available to treat infectious diseases. The appreciation of this could have implications for nurses working in current global conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This paper presents a discussion of historical scholarship published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Background The Journal of Advanced Nursing provides a forum for disseminating high-quality research and scholarship. For over 35 years, scholars have used the Journal of Advanced Nursing to disseminate research into aspects of nursing, including nursing history. Data sources The data source was Wiley Online electronic database for the Journal of Advanced Nursing for the period 1976-December 2011. Discussion Relative to other academic concerns, nursing history represents a topic of limited concern to nursing scholars, as evidenced in published scholarship in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. The trends in historical scholarship in the journal have been on disciplinary development, the place and context of practice, and gendered relationships. While these are legitimate academic concerns, they suggest a lack of attention to clinical practice in historical research, that which confers social legitimacy on the discipline. Implications for nursing Nursing derives its social legitimacy, in part, through its history, including reliable accounts of the legacy of nursing work in the development of healthcare systems. Disciplinary development in nursing is advanced by giving greater prominence to nursing history in nursing scholarship, including the history of nursing practice Conclusions Relative to other academic concerns, nursing scholarship affords little prominence to the topic of nursing history and less still to the history of practice, as evidenced in the outputs of one of nursing's major organs of scholarship. Not to assign due importance to the history of nursing and its practice demonstrates nursing's lack of disciplinary maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Faculty in nursing and history at Creighton University directed two service-learning courses on the history and public health implications of lead (Pb) exposure in Omaha, NE. As part of their service requirements, students conducted or observed blood lead screenings in area schools and reflected on these shared experiences in discipline-specific coursework. Strong student response encouraged the faculty to enrich transdisciplinary teaching and learning between these two courses. Although studies supply numerous best practices to develop collaborative experiences and service-oriented pedagogies, little work focuses on enriching collaborations between preexisting courses. Purpose: This study examines the outcomes of a partnership between nursing and history and presents a practical model that instructors can use to foster and deepen transdisciplinary service-learning. Methodology: Employing a hybrid grounded theory/topic modeling analysis of student reflection papers, we identify course outcomes of closest convergence. Findings/Conclusions: We argue that instructors can deepen transdisciplinary partnerships between service-learning courses by focusing on a common exemplar, encouraging collaborative experiences in the classroom and at service sites, and employing civic health as a shared concept in curricula. Implications: Beyond nursing and history, our model may be employed by faculty in preexisting service-learning courses to bring their courses into transdisciplinary convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary: What is known on this subject?: A growing literature is revealing the historical roles of nurses, their work and the various treatments with which they were involved.Remarkably little, however, has been written by nurses themselves about the culture in which they worked and the beliefs and values they held. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: In providing a personal account of psychiatric nurse training in the 1960s, this paper seeks to show the ways in which hospital culture and clinical practices shaped nursing identities and the attitudes of nurses towards their work. What are implications for practice?: This paper contributes to understanding the influence of cultural, managerial and attitudinal factors in shaping the work of mental health nurses and the quality of clinical outcomes they can achieve. For more than a century, mental hospitals were bedevilled by political disinterest, under‐resourcing, patient neglect and over reliance on medication and ECT to ensure compliance. Labelling mental health problems as illnesses silenced patients while empowering doctors. In the 1960s, social revolution brought about major changes for mental health care including a reduction in hospital beds, the growth of community services, improved pharmacological and psychological interventions and the rise of patient activism. Tensions between biomedical and psychological models of mental illness arose which persists to the present day. Although historians have studied this period from different perspectives, relatively little has been written by nurses. This is a personal account of nursing in a large psychiatric hospital between 1962 and 1965. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The professionalization of modern nursing education from 1850 and forward is closely linked to values and virtues underpinned by Christian ideals, sex‐based stereotypes and class. Development in the late 19th century of modern hospital medicine, combined with a scientific understanding of antisepsis and asepsis, hygiene, contagion prevention and germ theory, were highly influential insights to the dominant position of modern medicine in health care. This development constituted a key premise for what nurses, by virtue of being women, and combined with their education, could offer in terms of medical assistance. It enabled them to challenge the prevailing sex‐based stereotypes‐ and class‐based hierarchies, allowing modern nursing to retain aspects of both traditional Christian and womanly values, while at the same time adhering to the medical science paradigm. In this paper, we argue that modern nursing education developed in a context characterized by traditional female and religious values, while at the same time being increasingly dominated by the influence of scientific and medical progress. This conflict between traditional and modern values caused dilemmas and tensions as the nursing profession developed. We argue further that similar dilemmas and tensions continue to pervade contemporary nursing and nursing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aim: To show the development of an emerging nursing profession through the eyes of Louisa May Alcott and Hospital Sketches. Background: In Hospital Sketches, Louisa May Alcott recounts her experiences when she worked as a nurse of injured soldiers during the American Civil War, in an autobiographically and masked‐referential way, which allows her to negotiate between transgression and convention. Unlike other reviews, in this paper the relevance of nursing remains highlighted. Design: Discussion paper. Data sources: Existing literature in databases, history books and our own reading of facts. Implications for nursing: Illuminating overlooked meanings hidden in nurses’ personal sources enables to approach their contribution to history, improve their visibility and project the future of nursing. Nursing care, whether domestic or professional, was and remains a catalyst for change. Conclusion: Through Alcott's words, we understand the transition of nursing care as a gradual extension of the middle‐class woman's domestic role and a progressive definition of nurses’ identity. In particular, we highlight how certain professional nursing nuances which appear in the text are compatible with the gradual extension of the boundaries of women's domesticity. Furthermore, Alcott's use of literary devices reveals the delicate balance between women's domestic role and some new nursing professional features, which anticipates nursing professionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Francis report into shockingly deficient standards of care at an English hospital, this paper examines UK nurse education and revisits the premises on which the professional narrative of nursing was built. The UK government's response to the report is to introduce the 'associate nurse' role, to be nationally trained to do fundamental care in place of the registered nurse, and a nursing apprenticeship scheme-on-the-job training for a nursing degree. UK nursing bodies do not address the report's recommendations in regard to registered nurse education; rather, they advocate a further perpetuation of the current system. This shows deep uncertainty about what the 'true' nurse is. To those familiar with the Nightingale model that characterised nursing in England and elsewhere for a century before the introduction of Project 2000 in 1986, there is an intriguing historical echo in the Francis report. One might wonder whether Francis is really recommending a return to a virtue-based, practice-driven, nationally standardised version of nursing education developed by Nightingale and evidenced in nursing syllabuses in England and Wales 1860-1977. This paper supports this position, and shows from a review of historical and contemporary evidence that this Nightingale model has current relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present position paper provides an account of the life of Martha Entwistle, the earliest recorded convict nurse who worked within the Castle Hill Asylum. In our review of primary historical sources, Australia's first convict mental health nurse was found to be a resilient woman who endured several traumatic life experiences. Her nursing within Australia's first mental health asylum was highly valued by the superintendent of the service. She nursed in a harsh colonial environment, short of adequate resources, during an era of fast‐paced industrial and technological a change. Martha Entwistle's experiences provide a historical account of the role of the early convict mental health nurse. Her life story enables modern‐day nurses to reflect on the advances made in mental health nursing and contexts of care for nurses today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘nurse’ (hushi—’caring scholar’) did not enter the Chinese language until the early 20th century. Modern nursing—a fundamentally Western notion popularized by Nightingale and introduced to China in 1884—profoundly changed the way care of the sick was practiced. For 65 years, until 1949, nursing developed in China as a transnational project, with Western and Chinese influences shaping the profession of nursing in ways that linger today. Co‐authored by Chinese, Canadian, and American nurses, this paper examines the early stages of nursing in one province of China as an exemplar of the transnational nature of nursing development. By identifying sociopolitical influences on the early development of nursing in Shandong, the authors aimed not only to contribute to the nascent body of knowledge on China nursing history, but also to heighten readers’ sensitivity to the existence of historical echoes, residue, and resonances in their own nursing practices. Tracing current issues, values, or practices back to their roots provides context and helps us to better understand the present. Whether we are aware of the details or not, the gestalt of nursing practice in a particular place has been shaped by its history—including in Shandong province in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This historical study aims to refine understanding of the nature of nursing work. The study focuses on the 1880 crisis at Guy's Hospital in London to examine the nature and meaning of nursing work, particularly the concept of nursing work as many 'little things.' In this paper, an examination of Margaret Lonsdale's writing offers an original contribution to our understanding of the ways in which nursing work differs from medical practice. In this way, we use the late-nineteenth-century controversy at Guy's Hospital as a prism through which to examine the contested nature of nursing work. Lonsdale's ideas are corroborated by examination of writings by nurse leaders Florence Nightingale and Eva Luckes. Luckes, in particular, elaborated what was meant by nursing as the performance of a thousand little things, which are specific to nursing work. While physicians had been performing much of what was considered to be nursing work, nurses developed some of these and other interventions into a unique body of work characterized by meticulous attention to significant details. Some implications regarding current nursing practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of district nursing in Australia explored in this paper reveals a continuity in the essential values held by district nurses for over a century. These nurses practised holistic, family-centred nursing from the very origins of district nursing service. The events surrounding the establishment of Community Health Centres in the 1970s challenged district nurses to reconsider their role, while at the same time reconfirming their essential ethos. These values that underpinned district nursing practice and challenges to these values are examined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major mother of the Holy Well hospital-sanctorum fulfilled a transcendental paper in the maintenance of that institution. Even exceeded its functions, proposing, suggesting and making proposals even without the permission of his patronage that was the Brotherhood of the Mercy that was directing the Pious House of analogous name. The free interference of the major mother in the management of Holly Well often allowed by the Mercy provoked for the bishopric the first problem of consideration as the dismissal of the major mother Feliciana of Holy Teresa and chaplain at the request of vicar the Brotherhood of Mercy obeyed in 1737. However, soon after the incident, the same major mother proposed by the vicar resumed her leadership role absolutely necessary to maintain the Pozo Santo and the brotherhood of Mercy understood and accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sister (Sr.) Marie Simone Roach, of the Sisters of St. Martha of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, died at the Motherhouse on 2 July 2016 at the age of 93, leaving behind a rich legacy of theoretical and practical work in the areas of care, caring and nursing ethics. She was a humble soul whose deep and scholarly thinking thrust her onto the global nursing stage where she will forever be tied to a central concept in nursing, caring, through her Six Cs of Caring model. In Canada, she was the lead architect of the Canadian Nurses Association's first code of ethics, and her influence on revisions to it is still profound more than 35 years later. In this paper, four global scholars in nursing and ethics are invited to reflect on Sr. Simone's contribution to nursing and health‐care, and we link her work to nursing and health‐care going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular iconic image of Florence Nightingale as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, who administered acute nursing care to the casualties during the Crimean War, belies a more integrated approach to Nightingale's nursing, which was shaped by her use of evidence-based medicine, promulgated in her statistical reports, books and papers. This image thus undermines Nightingale's prodigious statistical work and her innovative statistical graphs that led to major health reforms in military and civilian hospitals, usually with the full support of the government. It was this empirically based strategy that enabled her to establish the necessary and essential nursing and hospital reforms, which modernized nursing in the mid- to late-Victorian period. This paper will examine the mathematical and statistical graphs that arose in the nineteenth century, which influenced Nightingale's use of statistical graphs. The iconography of her polar area graph, which was based on the mortality rates of British soldiers during the Crimean War, will also be assessed. It will be shown that Nightingale's role in promoting this graph helped to establish its iconic status, as did her introduction of new elements into the ordinary polar area graph. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Objectives: This paper asserts the significance of nurses’ writing within the developing field of life writing studies. It closely examines selected letters written by nurses in the Colonial Nursing Association (CNA) and models pertinent methods of literary analysis, in order to illuminate nurses’ experiences and their skills of self-authorship. The figure of the CNA nurse is an especially rich subject for study: while these women travelled across political and geographical boundaries, they also demonstrated especially flexible and multifaceted ‘travelling’ identities. This essay''s subject holds relevance for scholars of healthcare and the humanities, nursing educators, literary critics and medical historians. Designs: This is a discussion article that first establishes the value of narrative analysis in a health care context, specifically in the context of nursing scholarship and practice, and then introduces the relevant history of the CNA. Subsequently, the article analyzes primary texts, in the form of nurses’ letters, demonstrating how CNA nurses participated in and changed ideologies of gender, nation, and empire. Data sources: A range of historical and contemporary sources is used to support the goals of this paper, including primary texts such as letters and speeches and secondary material such as literary criticism and colonial histories. The essay is based on research into the first twenty years of the CNA, from approximately 1896 to 1914, with a particular focus on nurses posted to Africa and the Caribbean. Review methods: The article uses methods of literary and cultural analysis in order to prove that the study of nurses’ writing has contemporary cross-disciplinary significance. Conclusions: Women employed by the CNA drew upon traditional forms of colonial rhetoric in depicting their experiences, but also adapted these forms in order to reflect their own personal and professional experiences as nurses abroad. Many CNA nurses embraced adventure, independence and professional and physical challenges. For these traits to be accepted and celebrated within the late nineteenth and early twentieth century cultural imagination indicates that the CNA nurse may have revised concepts of female propriety in her own time, which may cause us to question some of our current assumptions about historical gender roles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As the world prepares to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, it is timely to discuss meaningful learning activities that students of nursing could be engaged in to encourage them to reflect on the nurse's role then and now. Several films and television series about the war and featuring nursing have already been aired. No doubt there will be many more stories to come. Such stories have the potential to do more than eulogise nursing for students and practitioners. Stories, such as The crimson field, have potential to stimulate serious contemplation about values and cultural practices that have remained constant or have changed and to assist students to develop and articulate values that will be fitting for contemporary practice. Recently, excerpts from the series were examined with a group of nursing students and key learnings were found. These are shared in this paper for the benefit of educators planning to utilise public discourse as triggers to engage nursing students in discussions about nursing values, nursing history and representations of the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims A discussion of recently discovered literature that reveals how after the Crimean War ended in 1856, Jamaican nurse, doctress and entrepreneur Mary Seacole travelled more widely and gained further international recognition than had previously been appreciated. Background New findings demonstrate that Seacole's international charitable and business activities were reported more widely than realised. Recently discovered literature uncovers her networking and strategic skills in various social milieus. A former Scutari nurse and 39 other women, offered their service to Seacole to nurse British soldiers in India. Newspapers also reported the medal she had been awarded from the Turkish government. Design Discussion paper. Data sources Digitized 19th-century newspaper reports, and 1857 Dutch and 1858 French translations of Seacole's autobiography and a recently discovered handwritten letter dated 1 October 1857 from Seacole to Sir Henry Storks, at the time Secretary for Military Correspondence at the War Office, London. Implications for nursing Awareness of the findings affords a more thorough understanding of the scope and diversity of nursing history. This can provide valuable role models for the 21st century generations of competent and self-confident healthcare professionals. The new evidence offers further testimony that Seacole can truly be considered as one such figurehead. Conclusions British and international primary sources reveal Mary Seacole as an historical and charismatic global phenomenon, more than had been previously realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To explore nurses' archived accounts of Matron Muriel Powell's management and leadership style and the impact of this on the implementation and sustainability of innovation in the workplace. Background In popular discourse, the matron has become an emblem of leadership. Although the title disappeared in the UK in the late 1960s as part of the re-organization recommended by the Salmon Report, it re-appeared in 2002 in an attempt to improve care standards by reasserting a strong nursing presence and clinical leadership role. Design Secondary data analysis using qualitative thematic analysis. Methods This paper draws on interview data held in the 'Nurses Voices' archive. The interview transcripts of 132 nurses who trained or worked at St George's hospital in 1920-1980 were analysed in depth between March 2011-January 2012 and themes were generated inductively by grouping together emergent codes in the data with similar meaning. Results Looking back, the nurses recalled strong memories of the leadership of Matron Powell. Her presence emerged as a significant influence throughout the interviews. Two resonant themes were identified: innovation and open communication. Conclusions Through her visibility and direct access with patients and staff, Dame Muriel Powell showed what we would now call transformative leadership qualities. Her leadership created a culture of open communication and innovation that initiated change in the organization and the nursing workforce. Looking back and learning from historical figures can deepen understanding and provide pointers for the nurse leaders of today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims The purpose of this article is to correct inaccurate information about both Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale, material that promotes Seacole as a pioneer nurse and heroine, while either ignoring Nightingale or trivializing her contribution. Background Nursing journals have been prominent in promoting inaccurate accounts of the contribution of Seacole to nursing. Some have intermittently published positive material about Nightingale, but none has published redress. Design Discussion paper. Data Primary sources from 1855-2012 were found, which contradict some key claims made about Seacole. Further sources - not included here - are identified, with a website reference. Implications for Nursing It is argued that Nightingale remains relevant as a model for nurses, with the many crises in patient care and continuing challenges of hospital safety. Conclusion Greater accuracy and honesty are required in reporting about nursing heroes. Without these, great ideas and examples can be lost to nursing and health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental nursing has continued to be neglected in the history of psychiatry. This paper considers the impact of a decade of radical developments on the role and outlook of nurses in British mental hospitals during the 1930s. The Mental Treatment Act 1930 introduced voluntary admission for early, supposedly treatable cases, although there was paucity of effective treatment. In the mid-1930s shock therapies, administered with great enthusiasm by asylum doctors, promised to cure insanity by physical means. Although these were important milestones in the progress of psychiatry, for the majority of nurses and patients life continued much as before. Despite advances in training, working conditions and therapeutic activity, the institutional culture of nursing was remarkably resilient to the forces of change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is based on an ongoing study on the history of nursing education, under the PhD in Nursing at the Instituto de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Católica Portuguesa and results from a paper presented at the First International Symposium on Nursing History, May 20131 . We aim to contribute to the discussion about the esucation of public health nurses through the analysis of emerging early curricula and to have a say on the knowledge of nursing history. We used historical research methodology, with heuristic orientation, and document analysis encompassing the conception and organisation of the health visitors' education. We observed that the training was held in the Instituto Superior de Higiene Dr. Ricardo Jorge (Faria, 1934). It was created in 1929 in the “Posto de Proteção à infância” as a response to idea of the creation of the visitor nurses corps, as foreseen in the reform proposal of Professor Ricardo Jorge (ISHRJ, 1953), in 1926. From 1931 it worked under the Decreto- Lei nº. 20376 and it allowed for practice on the Postos de Proteção à infância, social hygiene and epidemiological surveillance dispensaries (ISHRJ, 1946). With the reform of 1945 the course duration became one academic year, including internships with a minimum of 4 months. The curriculum was adjusted leading to a knowledge based in the field of public health practice focused on preventive and social medicine (ISHRJ, 1953). In 1952 this training was withdrawn from the nursing education. It is considered that this training is a significant milestone for public health nursing because of the role the visitors played among the population, with the political and health situation at the time in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Mental health nursing education in Australia has undergone a significant transition in the last 50 years, influenced by national inquiries, national decisions, and international trends in nursing education. But mental health nursing education had also accumulated decades of history in each state, including sometimes unequal relations with general nursing. Complex inter- and intra-professional relationships at state level influenced this educational transition in each state, and Western Australia provides an example of this influence. Using a range of published and unpublished sources, including oral histories, this paper describes the revision of the mental health nursing curriculum in Western Australia from 1958, responses to the call for transition to the tertiary sector between 1976 and 1984, and the final transition of mental health nursing education to university level in Western Australia in 1994. Mental health nursing's educational standards improved only gradually in Western Australia from 1958 onwards, compared with professional advances in general nursing in the same period. Factors which may have held back these improvements include mental health nursing's professional conservatism, which was outpaced by general nursing's growing radicalization at the national level. A lack of professional confidence and cohesion left mental health nursing unable to respond effectively to rapid external changes in the 1960s and 1970s, and vulnerable to absorption and dominance by general nursing education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reveals that historically various socio-political factors, including gender, class, ethnicity, race, waves of colonization, decolonization, the civil and ethnic wars, the women's and labour movements, have influenced the development of nursing in Sri Lanka. However, literature presenting the development of nursing in Sri Lanka is sparse. All relevant journals and books published in the English and Sinhalese languages on nursing in Sri Lanka between the years 1878-2011 were examined. Because there are no nursing journals currently produced in Sri Lanka, CINAHL and Medline databases were accessed and relevant literature published in the English language on Sri Lanka was examined. Government, nurses' union and association reports, other unpublished reports and websites such as Google were also searched to access information related to the influence of gender, race, class, ethnicity, women's and labour movements in Sri Lanka. Poor pay, shortages of resources, failure in recruitment and retention and limited opportunity for career progression have acted as deterrents to persons entering and remaining in the nursing profession. Being non-British was a key issue in terms of race. Further, the shift from a colonized state to a welfare state resulted in a class shift from upper middle class to middle and lower class persons entering into nursing. Although there is a paucity of information available in the nursing literature, this analysis offers an intriguing insight into an angle that may be used to examine the influence of gender, ethnicity, class, race and the women's and labour movements in other contextual situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The figure of the nurse Elizabeth Kenny has been notably recognized in all studies related to poliomyelitis, since her therapeutic methods generated a great controversy with the medical community at that time. The nursing care procedures developed by Ms. Kenny in people suffering poliomyelitis have been the objective of several research works. Those works were focused on her as a therapist, but they hardly highlighted her role as a nurse. This is a fact that remains clear in the few papers on her figure from this point of view. This topic is of a great importance since the work performed by nurses is not often appreciated outside their own professional field, as it was the case for F. Nightingale. Ms. Kenny's work is well known and recognized in medicine and physiotherapy. In this way it is important to notice that it was Ms. Kenny's experience as a nurse what allowed her to introduce some pioneer care procedures that improved the outcome of people affected by poliomyelitis. In this study, we analyze the significance and repercussion of the work done by Elizabeth Kenny in the nursing care field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HALLETT C and WAGNER L. Nursing Inquiry 2011; 18: 359-368 Promoting the health of Europeans in a rapidly changing world: a historical study of the implementation of World Health Organisation policies by the Nursing and Midwifery Unit, European Regional Office, 1970-2003 The World Health Organisation (WHO) was inaugurated in 1948. Formed in a period of post-war devastation, WHO aimed to develop and meet goals that would rebuild the health of shattered populations. The historical study reported here examined the work of the Nursing and Midwifery Unit (NMU) of WHO's European Regional Office during the later part of the twentieth century. The study examined archive sources lodged at the NMU archive. The sources included manuscripts relating to important NMU initiatives, reports and papers published by WHO, and a range of secondary sources. The study identified three main driving forces in the work of the NMU of the European Regional Office of WHO. One of the strongest of these was a drive to develop and promote the nursing profession within the countries of the European Region. The second was the promulgation and implementation of the positive public health strategies of WHO, particularly its '38 Targets for Health for All by the Year 2000'. The third focussed on securing equity across the European continent and on promoting the development of the nursing professions in poorer and less-developed countries. The study concludes that the nursing professions in European states grew in strength and influence, and that the health of populations improved throughout the continent between 1970 and 2003. It discusses the extent to which the role of the NMU in these advances may have been significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ahead of her time, although conservative, Florence Nightingale popularized the practice of nursing, allowing the establishment of a new profession for women. A well-educated and cultured woman, she used her knowledge and status to influence health and education policy in her time. She provided nursing care to patients in the battlefields of the Crimea (1854-1856), validating the profession of nursing and setting her on the path to being a status icon and legend. This article is a selected compilation of the literature that aims to honor and make known the path of the person who is considered the founder of modern nursing. Over 90 years of life, Florence Nightingale wrote about 20.000 letters to friends and distinguished acquaintances and wrote about 200 papers, including books, pamphlets and reports, which had a profound impact on health and the reorganization of health services. Her work was revolutionary and advanced in a way that had global outreach, and is still considered nowadays a cornerstone of the professionalization of nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper presents an examination of distinct periods in the development of nursing in order to rediscover a history of nursing management in England. The overall purpose is to demonstrate that uncritical accounts written in the past have not adequately explained the complex factors that have shaped nursing management in England. It is also suggested that the approach taken may be usefully applied to other national contexts. Design: This is a review article which first establishes the value of historical perspectives in increasing understanding of nursing and then goes on to analyse the professional, social and political forces that contributed to the development of nursing management. Data sources: A range of historical and contemporary sources is accessed to support the review. Review methods: The review is informed by an historical approach which also seeks recourse to current literature to develop a critical narrative analysis which has an international dimension. Conclusions: The history of nursing management has been ‘lost’ in celebratory and uncritical accounts of nursing as a whole. The important influence of key figures other than Nightingale has been overlooked and it emerges that nursing management has a longer and more complex history than is generally accepted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses a pragmatic and innovative approach to the data analysis of oral testimonies when used within a methodological framework of Historiography. Oral testimony is increasingly perceived as an exciting research method within the nursing discipline. However, the availability of a clear method to guide the researcher in their analysis of oral testimonies as the primary data for a Historiography is limited. A practical approach to the interpretation of oral testimony is needed to ensure the continued and successful use of Historiography as a valued research methodology in nursing science. The primary discussion revolves around the explication of a four-stage method proposed as a pragmatic tool for the analysis of oral testimonies. Theoretical literature from the Historian, Paul Thompson and Pragmatist Philosopher, Richard Rorty is drawn upon to bring validity and reliability to the proposed method of analysis. This new technique can be easily used by nurses and many other disciplines in their efforts to efficiently analyse the qualitative data obtained from oral testimonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) came to power in 1933, the new Nazi government focused the German health system on their priorities such as the creation of a racially homogeneous society and the preparation of war. One of the measures to bring nursing under their control was the foundation of a new sisterhood. In 1934, Erich Hilgenfeldt (1897-1945), the ambitious head of the National Socialist People's Welfare Association (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt), founded the National Socialist (NS) Sisterhood (Nationalsozialistische Schwesternschaft) to create an elite group that would work for the goals of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP). Hilgenfeldt proclaimed community nursing as a priority for NS Sisterhood nurses. Catholic and Protestant sisters, who were traditionally dedicated to community nursing, were to be gradually replaced. However, other competing priorities, such as hospital service for the training of junior nurses and work in conquered regions, as well as the lack of NS nursing personnel, hampered the expansion of community nursing. The paper also addresses areas for future research: everyday activities of NS nurses, the service of NS Sisterhood nurses for NSDAP organisations such as the elite racist paramilitary force SS (Schutzstaffel, Protective Squadron), and involvement in their crimes have hardly been investigated as yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the results of a national study of approaches to teaching nursing's history in Australia. We argue that the neglect of history learning within undergraduate nursing and midwifery education is undermining the development in students of a strong professional nursing identity. The data in our study shows that instead of proud, informed professionals, we are at risk of producing a generation of professional orphans – unaware of who they are and where they've come from, unaware of reasons underlying cultural practices within the profession, lacking in vision for the future, insecure about their capacity to contribute to future directions, and not feeling part of something bigger and more enduring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper focused on the analysis and questioning of the use of historical, ethical and legal sources. Objectives: Reflect on the classification of historical and ethical-legal sources in light of national and international literature and discuss opportunities and innovations in this regard. Methodology: A descriptive, exploratory and qualitative approach. Results and discussion: Based on the historical trajectory of the classification of sources, the findings indicated the need for expanding the concept of documents / sources and the possibility of articulating different sources in studies whose object is the history of nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Views of history often seem to be inextricably intertwined with assumptions about past and present political systems and the kind of pressure groups they generate. This fact is important when comparing the history of nursing across different time periods. This paper addresses the relevance of the historical comparative method for nurse historians as it applies to remote area nursing in Australia. The method is an under-utilized but legitimate and important methodological approach in health research, particularly when the research involves more than just content analysis of documents from the past. Specifically, when researching the history of nursing in Australia across different time periods, this method has much to contribute to our understanding of health-care practice and policy. Its contribution lies in allowing a student of nursing history to find the lessons from the past, which are many in health care. The historical comparative research method provides the way for comparisons of certain times and events as they relate to the scope of practice of nursing today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the subjective and objective history of nursing in the academy. Julian Barnes's paper "The Sense of an Ending" was used to explore the meaning of subjective time and objective time, which the classification of historical documents like letters and records of meetings as objective memory. A discussion on the difference between the nursing practice of yesterday and the modern day nursing procedure is presented.