The Past and Future of the Nursing Profession

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume V, Issue 4, 1 October 1912, Page 124

The Past and Future of the Nursing Profession

(Abstract of an address by Dr. Colquhoun, to the Trained Nurses' Association in Dunedin, July 29th, 1912)

The lecturer began by asking, " Why has nursing only become a profession for educated women in the life time of people now living ? ' ' The answer is to be found mainly in the consideration of the ideas held by the founder of European civilisation on the nature of disease, and on the position of women.

Among primitive people all diseases were supposed to be carried either by the evil influence of men or their ghosts, or by malignant spirits, who interpenetrated all human societies, or by angry gods. He referred to the permanence of these primitive conceptions and their e>:istence in all modern nations, side by side with those of science. Belief in the Evil Eye, in demoniacal possession, in the Divine anger visiting men and nations with diseases and disaster, is common everywhere, and probably if we counted heads only, in many countries, it is still held by the majority.

The lecturer gave some details of the growth of more rational conceptions among the most highly educated Greeks of the time of Hippocrates about the fifth century 8.C., and at Alexandria, during the reign of the Ptolemies from 323 8.C., to the beginning of our era It was evident that this teaching did not touch the greater mass of the people for when with the triumph of Christianity in the east and the west in Constantinople and in Rome, the Pagan religions fell, all their schools were closed and their science was banned. The primitive ideas which held 11 disease to be the result of the Evil Eye or a

demoniacal influence, came back in full force. The people brought, in amulets and spells, and invocations of saints, relief from those physical sufferings which the Greeks had taught could be gained through a careful observation of the human body and of the results of different methods of treatment.

The Nertorian Christians, a proscribed heretical sect carried Greek learning with them in their enforced exile into Asia. With the rise of the Mohammedan power came a singular expansion of mind among the Arab conquerors, and for many centuries European learning and science were kept alive and in many directions advanced b} 7 them. The Jews, driven out of Christian countries, or horribly maltreated, found an asylum among the Moslems. Many of them became skilled physicians and men of science and learning,and their help was sought during the dark ages by nearly every ruler in Europe.

The chaotic state of Europe after the downfall of the Roman Empire, forbade any intellectual growth. The rebirth — the renaissance — came in the fifteenth century. It began in Italy and spread quickly over the Continent. Men began to think and write. Printing spread their ideas by multiplying the number of their hearers. The arts and sciences were cultivated. Universities founded, and the forgotten learning of the Romans and Greeks began to become the common property of students.

With other forms of learning, the art of medicine began to grow and to seek its

foundations in observation of nature and not in authority ; it recognised that the universe is governed by law, not by caprice, and with that recognition came in one time our modern system of care of the sick, which includes as an essential part the provision of skilled nursing.

In addition to the influence of erroneous theories as to the nature of disease, rational medicine was hindered by the universal ideas as to the proper position of woman in society. She was denied many of the most elementary civil rights, not only in Eastern countries, but in the West. In England,. Acts of Parliament for the protection of animals were passed before those for the protection of women and children from cruelty and fraud. Education was imperfect and any departure from traditional occupations was discouraged. A new era began with the French Revolution, although in France the most radical politicians would have nothing to do with the rights of women. In England, Mary Woolstoncroft, in 1781, published an essay vindicating the right of women to political and social equality with men. She was looked upon much as we look upon anarchists and militant suffragettes to-day. It was not until the middle of the 19th century, when John Stewart Mill wrote on the " Subjection of Women," that a movement of emancipation really began, which has endured to our own time. It has resulted in opening all the avenues of higher education to women, and incidenttally it prepared the way for the great nursing movement initiated by Miss Nightingale among the English speaking races.

The speaker referred to the various developments of schools for the training of nurses, and to the fact that the war in the Crimea found the British and French armies practically unprepared for these inevitable events of a campaign — sickness and wounds.

One good thing arose out of that condition of affairs, only a languid public interest had been taken in the Kaiserwerth Training Home and other similar work, but with the example of the suffering of the soldiers in the Crimea, before their eyes, the public conscience of Europe and America was roused into action., and money was forthcoming to secure the training of nurses for civil and military work. The time was ripe — educated women were sufficiently numerous and they saw that in the service of mankind

there was open to them an honourable and useful career, which they have followed with advantage to themselves and to society.

Nursing as a profession has seen some changes of late years. There has been a great decrease in sickness. In this country typhoid fever has been much lessened, infant mortality is decreasing, there is an increasing tendency, especially in surgical work and obstetrics, and consumption, to make use of nursing homes and private hospitals. This means more work by associations, less by individuals.

But if work is decreasing in some directions, the scope of the nurse's work is growing in others. There is an ever increasing sense of the need of hygienic work among all classes. Much sickness and suffering is due to ignorance of the simplest rules of living — the need of cleanliness, fresh air, suitable diet properly cooked, care of the teeth, suitable clothing and exercise, and much of this work will fall in future to the nurse, if the Government will go on seriously with the excellent programme which our own health authorities have foreshadowed. Changes must be looked for in the training of nurses. For one thing women should be encouraged to begin the career of nursing earlier than at present. They might well begin with a course of domestic economy, such as is taught at the technical school in Dunedin and at Otago University. The kitchen and the domestic work at our great hospitals present a field for scientific work, which ought to be taken advantage of, and in training women in the arts of economic cooking and house-keeping,, there may be found the solution of a problem which is vexing the minds of all housekeepers. There is no reason why that branch of human service should not be as highly esteemed as the more technical work of nursing the sick. At present some reform in the feeding of the sick in hospitals is urgently needed, and the training to effect that reform which ought to be preliminary to every nursing course, would also be of the greatest value to women who do not wish to o become nurses.

There are scholarships enough at the secondary schools and universities. Scholars should also be freely encouraged to apply themselves to domestic economy and nursing, and the higher the standard which can be secured the better it will be for the nursing profession. There is one other important

matter which ought to be attended to, if it has not already been done. That is to secure for all trained nurses a provision for the time when they are past wort . If there is no pension found for nurses as triers is for teachers, the sooner steps are taken

to provide one the better. The work of a nurse is hard, and is not too well paid, and her services to the public deserve liberal Government help to any movement of this kind, which the Nurses' Association may initiate.