BADGES/PINS OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY SCHOOLS IN SLOVENIA FROM 1925 UNTIL EARLY 1980s.

INTRODUCTION: Many nursing and midwifery schools in many countries around the world awarded or still award graduation badges or pins to their graduates. All graduates from different parts of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later the Republic of Yugoslavia educated in Slovenian healthcare schools received badges from these schools. Some of the graduates later employed in medical institutions across former Yugoslavia wore these badges on their uniforms. The main purpose of this historical research was to establish which Slovenian health care schools awarded the graduation badges and what they looked like. It was also investigated why the badges ceased to be awarded and what motivated Angela Boskin Faculty of Health Care in Jesenice to reintroduce awarding the badges. METHODS: Due to a lack of written sources, we conducted 393 face to face and telephonic interviews with former badge recipients across Slovenia. Their existing badges were photographed. On the authors' initiative, a private collection of badges was started. RESULTS: It has been established that in the 20th century all Slovenian secondary health schools awarded badges. The Nursing College, Ljubljana also awarded graduation badges. Five different types of badges in many variants were issued. The first badges were awarded to graduates by Slovenian oldest Nursing School, Ljubljana in 1925. The badges ceased to be awarded in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Some questions about probable reasons for cessation of awarding badges remain unanswered. Less than a fifth of interviewees kept their badges. Graduating nursing badges were reintroduced in Slovenia in 2017 with a new badge which is presented and depicted in this article. The motivation for the reintroduction of graduating badges is also investigated. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Unfortunately, many Slovenian nurses and midwives are not sufficiently aware of the meaning and importance of their badges. Although badges are important for professional image and identity of nurses, badges as a symbol of nursing have become almost completely forgotten. Graduation badges are miniature works of art and are proof of the existence and development of Slovenian healthcare schools. Nursing badges present a part of nursing history as well as being our cultural heritage. The badges deserve to be written and talked about and should be displayed in a planned future Slovenian Health Care Museum.

IVth scientific congress of Central society of balneologists of Austria in Opatija, 1904.

The authors were interested in the lectures' themes, organisation, the course, and the accompanied activities at the balneology congress in Opatija in 1904. The congress was organised by the principle of the health resort at the time Professor Dr Julius Glax, and consisted of two separate parts. The first part was held in Opatija from October 13 until 15, 1904. There were lectures, auto-papers, summaries, reports, discussions, and the afternoon expert trip to Crikvenica by boat. In Opatija the participants were shown the spa park, the rehabilitation paths for patients with heart difficulties, marine baths Angiolona and Slatina, the covered spa Erzherzog Ludwig Viktor Bad, and of the health institution Zander Institute. At the accompanying exhibition the Austrian and German companies represented their products, among them still recognised Bayer, C. Reichert in Karl Zeiß. Additionally, the owner of the Zanderinstitut in Opatija Dr Isor Stein presented his own therapeutic aid exerciteur there. The first part of the congress concluded on October 15, 1904 with the great banquet in the hotel Stephanie.The second part of the congress was held from October 16 until 20, 1904. The expert trip was organised to the Austrian Riviera on the Pannonia ship. The participants visited attractions and health institutions in Mali Losinj, Pula, Brijuni, Rovinj, Grado, Aquileia and Trieste, where they also had expert lectures. The closing ceremony of the second part of the congress was in Trieste, from where the participants returned to Vienna by the special train.

Hydrotherapeutic institutions in the Austro-Hungarian health resort Abbazia / Opatija owned by the South Railways Company.

The South Railways Company built two hydrotherapeutic institutions Warm baths (Warmbade-Pavillion) and Hydrotherapeutic Institution (Hydropatische Anstalt) in the Angiolina Park in Opatija in 1884. The both institutions were in operation till 1904. Due to the deterioration of the both hydrotherapeutic institutions and increasing number of guests (in 1899 - 4009 guests, in 1902 - 19.001 guests) the South Railways Company built in 1902-1904 new modern hydrotherapeutic treatment institution the Covered Bath of the Archduke Ludwig Viktor (Erherzog Ludwig Viktor Bad). The leading physician (dirigierender Arzt) of these institutions was Professor Dr. Julius Glax, who added the thalassotherapy to the balneology. In 1907 the post of the leading physician of the Covered Bath of the Archduke Ludvig Victor (Erherzog Ludwig Viktor Bad) took over Dr. Albert Nussbaum. The Covered Bath of the Archduke Ludvig Victor institution was operating till 1919, when it was transformed into a hotel.

100th anniversary of the Fourth International Congress of Thalassotherapy in Opatija.

The authors of the text have been particularly interested into the organization, the procedure,the accompanying activities as well as the themes covered at 4th International Congress of Thalassotherapy in Opatija in 1908. The Congress was organised by the then head of the thermal spa resort Professor Dr.Julius Glax. The official languages at the Congress were German, French, English, and also Italian and Croatian as the languages of the hosting country. Each lecturer had twenty minutes time to give a lecture or a co-lecture, ten minutes for papers and five for a follow-up discussion. The participants could make use of the information centre of the Congress, in the centre of Opatija, the whole day. Unofficially, the Congress started on 27th September 1908 with the introductory evening for all the participants in Adria Club. The Congress officially began on 28th September 1908 when all the participants gathered at the theatre hall of Hotel Stephanie. The lectures were presented in the morning. In the afternoon, the participants were taken to visit some exhibitions (e.g. the medical exhibition at Hotel Palace, the exhibition of the native Istrian-Dalmatian home crafts and antiquates and the painting exhibition at Vila Angiolina), a short sea voyage through the bay of Kvarner. On the last day of the Congress, the participants observed the sanitary conditions in Opatija (the water supply, the sewer system, litter incinerator, and quarantine for infectious illnesses), three sanatoriums, Zander's Institute, the rehabilitating-heart paths and the Archduke Ludwig-Viktor's indoor baths. The round-Opatija tour was followed by the concluding meeting and the conclusion of the Congress. The authors of this research have established that there are no important differences in the organization and realization of the congresses in the past and now.

[Health resorts in Styria, Charinthia and Istria once (1897) and today (2007).].

The aim of this study is to determine which health resorts existed in 1897 in Istria, Carinthia and Styria region, how many of them are still in use today and how the spas and their offer were represented in the past and how they are represented today. The study is based on the textbook Balneotherapie II (Bibliothek des Arztes 1900) by prof. dr. Julius Glax. The second source of our study is based on the currently available presentation of the health resorts from the internet. The textbook Balneotherapie was intended for the post graduate education of physicians and general practitioners, so they could advise the patient on further treatment in an appropriate health resort. In the chapter Balneographie the author represented 1200 health resorts all over the world. From the book we have chosen the following regions: Istria, Carinthia and Styria which used to be three parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today they are divided in to three neighboring states: Croatia (Istria), Slovenia (Istria, Carinthia, Styria) and Austria (Carinthia, Styria). Within these regions Glax presented 22 health resorts, 19 of them are still working today. Barbarabad/Barbara bath (Carinthia, Austria) does not exist either as a resort or as a city. Rimske toplice (Römerbad/Roman baths) and Rimski vrelec (Römerquelle/ Roman springs) in Styria region do not function as health resorts any more. Nowadays we make a difference between spa and health resorts. Spa resorts offer numerous forms of recreation for better well being. Health resorts offer health services, as well as neglected, but various forms of alternative treatments and recreation. Each spa and health resort is represented in brochures and on the World Wide Web individually. Tradition is usually not mentioned, it is neglected but the exception is Opatija (Abbazia) which past is usually presented in the brochures. The museum of medical tourism was opened in November 2007 in Opatija where you can admire the development of Opatija from a small village to a mundane health resort.