[Anna Hamilton (1864-1935), the excellence of nursing.] / Anna Hamilton (1864-1935), l'excellence des soins infirmiers.

A Frenchwoman, Anna Hamilton (1864-1935), daughter of a Franco-English couple, reads with passion the works of Florence Nightingale and takes an interest in nursing. In order to practice it, she first passes the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in self-education and registers at the Marseille medical school. She wants to prepare a medical thesis on the nursing staff in the hospitals in Europe and is conducting an investigation throughout Europe. She passed her thesis on June 15, 1900 entitled "Considerations on hospital nurses". This work is immediately published. That same year, she took up a post at the "Maison de santé protestante" in Bordeaux (MSP), founded in 1863. Without managerial staff, she is forced to recruit them abroad. She publishes a professional journal : "La Garde-Malade hospitalière" (1906-1914). Then the war turned the MSP into a military hospital, but the institution continued to receive local paying patients. She was given permission to call the school of nurses : Florence Nightingale School. Anna Hamilton is working with American women to create a medical and social service in Aisne. A graduate, Antoinette Hervey, then opened a medical-social service in Rouen, which would employ up to 30 visiting nurses. In 1916, the MSP received a donation from the domain of Bagatelle. The board of directors wants to sell it, but Anna Hamilton manages to finance a hospital-school thanks to families bereaved by the war and a subscription announced in the "Journal of Nursing". Other establishments created by former students of the MSP opened : the School-hospital Ambroise Paré in Lille, a nursing home for nurses in Chambon-sur-Lignon in 1927 (the Edith-Seltzer foundation) and a sanatorium in Briançon. After a busy life, Anna Hamilton died of cancer in 1935 and is buried in Bordeaux.

[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.

[Léonie Chaptal (1873-1937), architect of the nursing profession]. / Léonie Chaptal (1873-1937), architecte de la profession infirmière.

Léonie Chaptal was a wealthy heiress. She had an excellent education that she completed on her own initiative. Between 30 and 40 years old, she founded and managed health charities in a popular and disadvantaged district of Paris. She was interested in all the aspects of life, from birth to death. Though fervent, she lived as an officially laic liberal catholic woman. Her noticeable competency brought her to sit at the Conseil supérieur de l'Assistance publique (Welfare services), where some national decisions of public health were made. Her action against tuberculosis was acknowledged worldwide. She opened a training school in nursing care from 1905, and participated to the national and international debates on this theme of training. During the Great War, she was particularly active. In the 1920s, she presented a report on nursing education which immediately gave rise to the drafting of a decree which structured nursing schools and programs in France, as well as the obtaining of a nursing diploma after two years of studies at school. But to practice, this diploma was not required, what depreciated the function. After having created the French association ANIDEF, she became the president of the International Council of Nurses. Between the wars, the practice of the nursing profession was far below Léonie's aspiration, who was torn between her opponents: some Republicans little likely to favour women's work and some Catholics attached to claim their faith.

[Data quality of cancer registration by Adicap codes, used by French pathologists from Paca, 2005-2006]. / Evaluation de la qualité du recueil des codes Adicap de tumeurs invasives et in situ par le Crisap de Paca Est, 2005-2006.

AIM: To assess the reliability of systematic and exhaustive cancer Adicap code registration by French pathology laboratories within the Crisap of Paca East network. METHODS: The Adicap code includes tumour site, histology and pathology technique. A quality control programme was applied to malignant and in situ tumours with an Adicap code to assess data quality, correct errors and supply missing data, based on IARC recommendations. RESULTS: In 2005 and 2006, 45,980 pathology examinations were entered in the Crisap of Paca East database. There was at least one Adicap code per examination, patients, surgeons and pathologists were identified and date of diagnosis was completed, as recommended by the HAS-Afaqap 2005 French pathologist professional quality control. Discrepancies between histopathology tissue and tumour site were found in 0.32% of cases (n=147), between age and histopathology in 0.04% of cases (n=19), and between genital tumour and sex in 0.01% of cases (n=3). In 2006, within 9535 subjects, dates of birth and postcodes of residence were missing, respectively, in 0.39% (n=37) and 22.46% (n=2142) of cases. CONCLUSION: Data quality for the Adicap code database may be considered satisfactory. Extended to Paca in 2007, Crisap Paca database can now be exploited for Paca regional cancer control strategy.

[Human dirofilariasis: 3 cases in the south of France]. / Dirofilariose humaine: 3 cas autochtones dans le sud de la France.

INTRODUCTION: Dirofilariasis is a zoonosis usually found in dogs and cats. It is rare in humans, who are dead-end hosts for the parasite. CASES: We report 3 cases of subcutaneous dirofilariasis due to Dirofilaria repens, contracted in the south of France (Alpes-Maritimes and Corsica). In the first two cases, the dirofilariasis manifested as lymph node enlargement; in the third case, lung disease suggested a systemic diffusion of microfilariae. DISCUSSION: Dirofilaria repens dirofilariasis is due to the transmission of microfilariae by some mosquito bites (Aedes, Culex, Anopheles, Mansonia, Psorophora and Taeniorhynchus). Usually only one larva develops, producing an immature adult worm inside a node. Ultrasound examination may suggest the parasitic origin of the lesion. It is treated surgically, by excision, without chemotherapy. Very rarely, an adult worm may mature and produce systemic diffusion of microfilariae. The nodule in the third case contained a gravid adult female worm but we found no microfilariae. Dirofilariosis can present problems in diagnosis and treatment. It must be considered in patients with an isolated nodule.