For the flaring up of the flu: The nurses of the Maggiore Hospital in Milan hit by the Spanish fever.

In the last year of the Great War, Italy was also hit by the Spanish flu. The Civic Hospitals faced a deadly disaster with insufficient resources. All the heavy workload fell on the female nursing staff, who were the only ones able ensure the continuity of the hospital services. This study aimed to explore the impact of the influenza on the health of the nurses at the Maggiore Hospital in Milan during the second and third epidemic waves. Historical research was conducted between February and May 2020. Primary sources were retrieved from the historical archives of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. In the autumn of 1918, the Maggiore Hospital in Milan changed its organization to hospitalise patients affected by the influenza pandemic. Although the hospital managers wanted to protect their healthcare staff from the risks of contagion by means of prophylaxis rules, 388 lay nurses and 80 religious sister nurses were affected by this insidious disease. The second and third waves of the pandemic claimed 25 victims of duty. Remembered for their altruism and spirit of abnegation, the hospital community honoured their sacrifice, and the citizens expressed their gratitude.

[The emergence of nurses in the health market in Paris in the eighteenth century]. / L'émergence des garde-malades dans le marché de la santé à Paris au XVIIIème siècle.

At the end of the seventeenth century, the lexicographer Antoine Furetière limited the definition of nurses to those who cared for new mothers. However, in the private sphere, they cared for patients with all sorts of illnesses. It was only in 1816 that Doctor Marc proposed a precise definition of their activity. This paper examines the shift from nurses being considered as domestic healthcare workers to them being seen as skilled professionals whose role involved administering paramedical care.Because they were not part of a particular occupational community, nurses escaped the traditional categories of analysis of urban work. While the studies on health in the eighteenth century considered them to be like relations or friends of the patients, or to practice in hospitals, in the expenses lists recorded for post-mortem procedures they appear as new actors offering specific services.Nurses played a part in spreading a "culture of dependency," which was reflected in some medical texts and in some private writings by patients, making it possible to define the expectations and risks of the profession. The absence of testimonies from nurses themselves is revealing of their dependence on physicians.

[Psychiatric nurses experiences of the humanization movement during the first and second waves of deinstitutionalization in Quebec (1960-1990)]. / Les infirmières psychiatriques témoins d'un mouvement d'humanisation au cours des premières et deuxièmes vagues de la désinstitutionnalisation au Québec (1960-1990).

Introduction : This study examines the humanization movement at the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu psychiatric hospital between the 1960s and the 1990s.Context : Conducting a historiography of psychiatric deinstitutionalization in Quebec during the twentieth century shows that the institution was a place of social control and, above all else, a place where psychiatric patients were neglected and dehumanized.Objective : While the historiography since the 1960s has focused on a largely one-dimensional and critical reading of the way in which deinstitutionalization took place in Quebec, I have instead chosen to focus on the changes that took place within the Quebec hospital's walls.Method : In addition to the medical records of the patients who were interned in 1961, I conducted interviews to examine the experiences and emotions of nurses who worked in the psychiatric hospital between the 1960s and 1990s.Results : The examination of medical records revealed patients' reluctance and resistance to reintegrate into society. The interviews with nurses revealed that they often felt close to their patients.Discussion : The words and memories of nurses enrich and deepen the complexity of the history of psychiatric nursing practices, extend the existing historiography, and open new avenues for research in the field.Conclusion : The deinstitutionalization movement promoted mental health policies that transformed the old psychiatric hospital. This new analytical approach contributed to renewing the history of psychiatric nursing practices.

The wet nurses of the Hospital Real of Santiago de Compostela between 1803 and 1808.

Objective: To analyze the duties of wet nurses at the Hospital Real in Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The secondary objectives were to compare the mortality rate and distribution by parish of the foundlings under the care of the Royal House between 1803 and 1808; and to determine the origin of the Galician foundlings who participated in the Royal Philanthropic Expedition of the Smallpox Vaccine in 1803. Methods: Historiographic study that analyzed sorted and not sorted in series indirect positional and quantitative historical sources. Results: The duties of wet nurses during the studied period were to provide basic care and cultural instruction. The mortality rate of foundlings fluctuated during that period and their distribution by parish (functional unit of healthcare services at that time) was similar in those years, with a predominance in the provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra. A total of 5 Galician foundlings from the House analyzed were part of the smallpox vaccine expedition, their names were Juan Antonio, Jacinto, Gerónimo María, Francisco Florencio and Juan Francisco. Conclusion: During the observed period the wet nurses of the Hospital Real of Santiago de Compostela were in charge of pediatric care. Wet nurses were vital in the role of keeping the foundlings alive and can be considered as one of the forerunners of the pediatric nurse profession at that time.

The relationship between Canadian nurses and hospital management: a snapshot from 50 years ago.

Nurses and management are partners in hospital service delivery. Currently, there are gaps in understanding what fosters this partnership and how it has changed over time. This research investigated the topics that punctuated the nurse-manager relationship from 50 years ago, from the viewpoint of Canadian hospital management. A content review was conducted on the 1962 issues of the "national professional publication for hospital management." Five dominant themes are reported and discussed.

[The beginnings of the nursing profession : the complementary relationship between secular caregivers and hospital nuns in France in the 17th and 18th centuries]. / Prémices de la profession infirmière: de la complémentarité entre soignantes laïques et religieuses hospitalières XVIIe - XVIIIe siècle en France.

The words used for designating the caregivers are ambiguous. Little by little, the word "nurse" becomes widely used, mainly in the feminine form due to the need of specialized staff. Health care structures are developing in the 17th and 18 centuries, the remains of which you can find in today hospitals (Salpêtrière hospital, Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris). The government of Louis XIV cares for the poor sick people, the vagabonds and the beggars. It opens new general hospitals as it will be the case later in all Europe. In the 17th century, the staff of the general hospital in Paris is entirely secular. The Paris general hospital is headed by the magistrates of Paris Parliament. The healthcare institutions employ both secular and religious staff for example the Hotel Dieu in Paris and the one in Marseilles. In the 17th century, there are 2000 secular caregivers in France. The order of the "Filles de la Charité" (grey sisters) is not submitted to the rule of enclosure. They renew their vows every year. For their founders Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marcillac, their monastery should be the cells of the sick, their cloister should be the rooms of the hospitals or the streets of the town. The secular or religious caregivers are excellent in the apothecary and they open a network of small dispensaries. It improves the health of the French population and allows fighting against the epidemics. This activity allowed some women to have a rewarding activity and a social status of which they were apparently satisfied.

Looking back 50 years in hospital administration.

Healthcare policy and hospital administration are dynamic and growing fields, oriented toward shaping the future. In an effort to understand where these fields have come from, as well as some of the re-occuring challenges faced, we conducted a retrospective analysis. Our research identified progress and major accomplishments, as well as issues that continue to challenge the field in five key areas: (1) the evolution of nursing, (2) funding and legislation, (3) hospital design, construction and technology, (4) patient care and infection control and (5) leadership. To explore these areas, a thematic content review was conducted on the 12 inaugural issues of Hospital Administration in Canada, a hospital administration periodical from 1962. All written content was reviewed, coded and categorized into major themes that represented the major hospital administration topics of 50 years ago. In this article, five prominent themes are explored and further illustrated using key stories and milestones from 1962.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In "Looking Back 50 Years in Hospital Administration," Graham and Sibbald identify five principal themes in the 1962 issues of Hospital Administration in Canada: the evolution of nursing, funding and legislation, hospital design, patient care and infection control and leadership. These themes are of course consistent with thematic concerns regarding healthcare in 2012; in some ways, this consistency over 50 years is disappointing, but not surprising. This commentary examines some of the specific themes.

[Rationalization of Protestant nursing. A comparison of Deaconess Motherhouses in West Germany and the United States, 1945-1970]. / Rationalisierung evangelischer Krankenpflege. Westdeutsche und US-amerikanische Diakonissenmutterhäuser im Vergleich, 1945-1970.

Protestant Deaconess Motherhouses emerged as a German nursing organization in the nineteenth century to be later exported to many other countries including the United States. The motherhouse principle could not be simply transferred without being adapted to the situation prevailing in each of those countries. The essay investigates the conception and transformation of Protestant nursing by comparing a West German and American deaconess motherhouse each in their particular context. It shows that the deaconesses in the United States developed their own, more scientifically oriented understanding of nursing and were therefore more open to the rationalization of nursing than their West German counterpart.

[The voluntary medical care during the First World War. The work of the nursing staff in the military field hospitals on the eastern and western frontlines]. / Die freiwillige Krankenpflege im Ersten Weltkrieg. Die Arbeit der Schwestern und Pfleger in den Kriegslazaretten der Etappen.

The voluntary medical care consisted of civilians who were provided to the medical corps in the First World War for the first time in this great dimension. The nursing staff on the eastern and the western German frontlines were sending letters back home, some of them were drafting diaries due to the special event or recorded their experiences after the war. Besides the narratives of their private impressions, these documents are reflecting their nursing work, which the nursing staff had to achieve. An important factor was, that the patients were soldiers. Conflicts in the cooperation with the medical staff and among the nurses did not seem to have influenced a good quality of care, however it facilitated a harmonic coexistence and above all, it helped to sustain behind the fronts. The study of the nursing care and the relationship with patients and among the staff reflects on the meaning of nursing care for the staff.

Do ward sisters have influence over care?

The role of the ward sister has changed significantly since modern nursing began in the 19th century. This article looks at the history of the ward sister, explores the impact of political and professional changes on the role and discusses how ward sisters can help maintain the quality of care in today's NHS.

"To help a million sick, you must kill a few nurses": nurses' occupational health, 1890-1914.

Although nursing is recognized today as a serious occupational health risk, nursing historians have neglected the theme of occupational health and individual nurses' experience of illness. This article uses the local history of three case study institutions to set nurses' health in a national context of political, social, and cultural issues, and suggests a relationship between nurses' health and the professionalization of nursing. The institutions approached the problem differently for good reasons, but the failure to adopt a coherent and consistent policy worked to the detriment of nurses' health. However, the conclusion that occupational health was somehow neglected by contemporary actors was, nevertheless, erroneous and facilitated omission of the subject from historical studies concentrating on professional projects and the wider politics of nursing. This article shows that occupational health issues were inexorably connected to these nursing debates and cannot be understood without reference to professional projects.

Catholic orders' influence on nursing: 1900-1920.

Doing God's work through vocation and caring for the less fortunate has been a long-time focus of the Catholic faith. In the early 20th century Catholic orders of nuns made major contributions to nursing education and clinical practice. This historical research article illustrates the sisters' vast influence on nursing as they introduced spirituality into quality patient care.

Managing the burden: nursing older people in England, 1955-1980.

This article is a historical exploration of the work undertaken, by both nurses in training and qualified ward level nurses, on older adult wards of the National Health Service hospitals in England between 1955 and 1980. It focuses particularly on the personal care given to older patients, including pressure area care, the importance of meal times for the patients and the central role of the ward sister in the administration of food, and the training of the student nurses. These key practice themes will be examined in turn and related to the realities that the nurses faced in terms of the shortages of equipment, expertise, training, and also the low status accorded to the care of older people. It will be demonstrated that the care received by the elderly patients was often uncaring, routine and regimented. However, the blame for this treatment cannot be laid solely at the feet of the nurses themselves, but the system which conspired against them and their patients - a system, based on a prevailing attitude in which the older adult population was considered to be a 'burden', or the 'cuckoos in the nest of the acute general hospital' (Grimley Evans 1997, 1076). It is hoped that this article will contribute to the emerging and important area of the history of nursing work.

The importance of fastidiousness in nursing.

There has been a lot of criticism of nurses recently. Some would say that one of the biggest problems today is that nurses are not as disciplined or don't pay sufficient attention to detail. One hundred years ago in the BJN, there was an article questioning just how fussy and careful nurses were about small details such as dress and cleanliness.

The Death of Florence Nightingale.

Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives over more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula rarely include nursing's history, but it's a history worth knowing. To this end, From the AJN Archives highlights articles selected to fit today's topics and times. This month's article, from the September 1910 issue, is a tribute to Florence Nightingale after her August 1910 death at age 90. It's likely that this was a "stop the presses" moment in the early years of AJN, with staff rushing to ensure that the news appeared in the first issue following her death. The writer of this brief commentary-more a eulogy than an obituary-stresses that Nightingale was not a one-dimensional angelic figure. She was a reformer: "The first thinker and writer of her times on hygiene, on hospital and training-school administration, on private and hospital nursing methods, and on the care of the sick poor in their own homes." In the October issue that year, AJN continued its tribute to Nightingale with detailed descriptions of the funeral procession, the many floral tributes from around the world, and the memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London that was open to the public.