EVOLUTION OF NURSING

Period of Intuitive Nursing

(Prehistoric to early Christian era)
Nursing was untaught and instinctive
Performed out of compassion for others and desire to help others

Beliefs and Practices of Prehistoric Man

Nursing was a function that belonged to women taking care of the

children, the sick and the aged.
Believed that illness causes the invasion of evil spirit through the
use of black magic or voodoo.
Believed that medicine man was called shaman or witch doctor
having the power to heal using white magic.
They also practiced trephining or drilling a hole in the skull with a
rock or stone without anesthesia as a last resort to drive evil spirits
from the body.

Contributions to Medicine and Nursing

Babylonia
o Code of Hammurabi provided laws that covered every
facet of Babylonian life including medical practice and
recommended specific doctors for each disease and gave
each patient the right to choose between the use of
charms, medications or surgical procedures.
Egypt
o Introduced the art of embalming
o Developed the ability to make keen observation and left a
record of 250 recognized diseases
o Slaves and patients families nursed the sick

Israel
o Moses was recognized as the Father of Sanitation and
wrote in Old Testament which:
Emphasized the practice of hospitality to strangers
and acts of charity
Promulgated laws of control on the spread of
communicable disease and the ritual of
circumcision of the male child
Referred to nurses as midwives, wet nurses or
childs nurses whose acts were compassionate
and tender
China
o Believed that in using girls clothes for male babies keep
evils away from them
o Prohibited the dissection of dead human body as a
worship to ancestors
o They gave the world knowledge of material medica
(pharmacology)
India
o Men of medicine built hospitals, practiced an intuitive form

o
o
o

Nursing was the task of untrained slave

Introduced caduceus, the insignia of medical
profession today
Hippocrates was given the title of Father of Scientific
Medicine. He made major advances in medicine by
rejecting the belief that diseases had supernatural
causes. He also developed assessment standards for
clients, established overall medical standards,
recognized a need for nurses.

Rome
o
o
o

The Romans attempted to maintain vigorous health,

because illness was a sign of weakness
Care of the ill was left to the slaves or Greek
physicians. Both groups were looked upon as inferior
by Roman society.
Fabiola made her home the first hospital in the
Christian world through the help of Marcella and Paula

Period of Apprentice Nursing

(Founding of religious nursing orders to 1836 when Kaiserwerth Institute for the
training of Deaconesses in Germany was established)
Also called the period of on the job training.
Nursing care was performed without any formal education and by people
who were directed by more experienced nurses
Religious orders of the Christian church were responsible for the
development of this kind of nursing.
Crusades

Military religious orders established hospitals staffed with men

Knights of Lazarus was founded and primarily for the nursing care of lepers in
Jerusalem after the Christians had conquered the city.

Rise of Secular Orders

Religious taboos and social restrictions influenced nursing at the time of the
Religious Nursing orders
Hospitals were poorly ventilated and the beds were filthy
There was overcrowding of patients: 3 or 4 patients regardless of diagnosis or
whether dead or alive, may have shared one bed.
Practice of environmental sanitation and asepsis were non-existent
Older nuns prayed with and took good care of the sick, while younger nuns
washed soiled linens, usually in the rivers.
St. Catherine of Siena. The first Lady with a Lamp. She was a hospital nurse,
prophetess, researcher and a reformer of society and the church.
In 16th century, hospitals were established for the care of the sick where hospitals
were gloomy, cheerless, airless and unsanitary. People entered hospitals only
under compulsion or as a last resort.
Dark Period of Nursing
(17th to 19th century)

There were no provisions for the sick, no one to care for the sick

Period of Educated Nursing

(From June 15, 1869 when Florence Nightingale School of Nursing was opened
until World War II)
The development of nursing during this period was strongly influenced by
trends resulting from wars, from an arousal of social consciousness, from the
emancipation of women and from the increased educational opportunities
offered to women
Popularization of the philosophy of the Nightingale System
o Importance of nursing education
o Hospital affiliation
o Nurses teaching students
o Health teaching as critical responsibility
o Enforced written physician orders
o Expansion in no. of schools to North America
o Specialization developed
Facts about Florence Nightingale
o Recognized as the Mother of Modern Nursing
o Known also as the Lady with a Lamp
o Raised in England and learned languages, literature, mathematics
and social graces
o Developed he self-appointed goal: to change the profile of nursing
o Compiled notes of her visits to hospitals, her observation of the
sanitary facilities and social problems of the places she visited
o Noted the need for preventive medicine and good nursing
o Advocated the care of those afflicted with diseases caused by lack of
hygienic practices
o At age 31, she entered the Deaconess School of Kaiserworth
o Worked as superintendent for Gentlewomen during illness
o Disapproved of the restrictions on admission of patients and
considered this unchristian and incompatible with health care
o Upgraded the practice of nursing and made nursing an honorable
profession for gentlewomen
o Led the nurses that took care of the wounded during the Crimean war
o Put down her ideas in two published books: Notes on Nursing and
Notes on Hospitals
Period of Contemporary Nursing
(Period after World War II up to present)
Scientific and technological developments as well as social changes mark
this period
Establishment of WHO
Use of atomic/nuclear energy for medical diagnosis and treatment
Utilization of computers
Use of sophisticated equipment for diagnosis and therapy
Health is perceived as a fundamental human right
Nursing involvement in community health is greatly intensified
Development of the expanded role of nurses
Professionalization of nursing
Nursing in the Philippines
Early Beliefs and Practices

 Superstitious beliefs and practices in relation to health and sickness such as

Herbmen or Herbicheros as one who practiced witchcraft
Persons suffering from diseases without identified cause were believed to be
bewitched by mangkukulam.
Spanish Period
The religious orders exerted their efforts to care for the sick by building
hospitals in the different parts of the Philippines
Earliest hospitals established:
Hospital real de Manila (1577) built to care for the Spanish kings
soldiers
San Lazaro Hospital (1578) built exclusively for patients with leprosy
Hospital de Indio (1586) established by Franciscan Order; service
was in general supported by alms and contributions from charitable
individuals.
Hospital de Aguas Santas (1590) founded by Brother J. Bautisita of
the Franciscan Order.
San Juan de Dios Hospital (1596) Founded by the Brotherhood of
Misericordia and administered by the Hospitalliers of San Juan de
Dios; support was derived from alms and rents; rendered general
health service to the public.
Nursing during Philippine Revolution
Prominent persons involved in nursing works
Jpsephine Bracken installed a first hospital in an estate house in
Tejeros; provided nursing care to the wounded night and day
Rosa Sevilla de Alvero converted their house into quarters for the
Filipino soldiers, during the Philippine-American War that broke out in
1899.
Dona Hilaria de Aguinaldo wife of Emilio Aguinaldo; organized
Filipino Red Cross under the inspiration of Apolinario Mabini
Dona Maria Agoncillo de Aguinaldo econd wife of Emilio Aguinaldo;
provided nursing care to Filipino soldiers during revolution. President
of Filipino Red Cross branch in Batangas
Melchora Aquino Nursed the wounded Filipino soldiers and gave
them shelter and food
Capitan Salome a revolutionary leader in Nueva Ecija; provided
nursing care to the wounded when not in combat
Agueda Kahabagan revolutionary leader in Laguna, also provided
nursing services to her troops
Trinidad Tecson Ina ng Biac na Bato, stayed in the hospital at Biac
na Bato to care for the wounded soldiers.
Filipino Red Cross
Malolos, Bulacan was the location of the national headquarters
Functions:
o Collection of war funds and materials through concerts, charity
bazaars, and voluntary contributions
o Provision of nursing care to wounded Filipino soldiers
Requirements for Membership
o At least 14 years old, age requirement for officer was 25 years
old
o Of sound reputation
Hospitals and Schools of Nursing

Established by the Archbishop of Manila, the Most Reverend Jeremiah Harty

under the supervision of the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartes. It was located in
Intramuros and it provided general hospital services with free dispensary and
dental clinic
Philippine General Hospital School of Nursing (1907)
Anastacia Giron-Tupas, the first Filipino nurse to occupy the position of chief
nurse and superintendent in the Philippines
St. Lukes Hospital School of Nursing (Quezon City, 1907)
Mary Johnston Hospital and School of Nursing (Manila, 1907)
Philippine Christian Institute Schools of Nursing
Sallie long Read memorial Hospital School of Nursing (Laoag, Ilocos Norte,
1903)
Mary Chiles Hospital School of Nursing (Manila, 1911)
Frank Dunn Memorial Hospital (Vigan, Ilocos Sur, 1912)
San Juan de Dios School of Nursing (Manila, 1913)
Emmanuel Hospital School of Nursing (Capiz, 1013)
Southern Islands Hospital School of Nursing (Cebu, 1918)

First Colleges of Nursing in the Philippines

University of Santo Tomas College of Nursing (1946)
Manila Central University College of Nursing (1947)
University of the Philippines College of Nursing (1948)
Nursing Leaders in the Philippines
Anastacia Giron-Tupas First Filipino nurse to hold the position of Chief Nurse
Superintendent; founder of Philippine Nurses Association
Cesaria Tan First Filipino to receive a Masters degree in Nursing abroad
Socorro Sirilan pioneered in hospital social service
Rosa Militar a pioneer in school health education
Sor Ricarda Mendoza pioneer in nursing education
Conchita Ruiz first full-time editor of the newly named PNA magazine The
Filipino Nurse
Loreto Tupaz Dean of the Philippine Nursing; Florence Nightingale of Iloilo