Royal British Nurses' Association

The History of Nursing in the United Kingdom tells of the development of the profession of Nursing in the United Kingdom since the 1850s. The history of nursing itself dates back to ancient times, where the sick could be cared for in temples and houses of worship. In the early Christian era nursing duties were undertaken by certain women in the Church, their services being extended to patients in their homes. These women had no real training by today's standards, but experience taught them valuable skills, especially in the use of herbs and folk drugs, and some gained fame as the physicians of their era. Remnants of the religious nature of nurses remains in Britain today, especially with the retention of the term "Sister" for a senior female nurse.

Florence Nightingale is regarded as the founder of modern nursing profession. There was no hospital training school for nurses until one was established in Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1846. There, Nightingale received the training that later enabled her to establish, at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the first school designed primarily to train nurses rather than to provide nursing service for the hospital.

In the Crimean War against Russia, Nightingale was appointed by Sir Sidney Herbert to oversee the introduction of female nurses into the military hospitals in Turkey. In November 1854, Nightingale arrived at the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, with a party of ten nurses and ten nuns. Initially the doctors did not want the nurses there and did not ask for their help, but within ten days fresh casualties arrived from the Battle of Inkermann and the nurses were fully stretched.Nightingale was horrified at what she found in the makeshift hospital: doctors reusing infected rags, the used rags just remaining in a pile, soldiers left unwashed and bleeding. She introduced sanitary protocols and reduced the casualty rate by fifty percent.

When Nightingale returned from the Crimean War in August 1856, she hid herself away from the public's attention. For her contribution to Army statistics and comparative hospital statistics in 1860, Nightingale became the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Statistical Society.

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