Personalities, Preferences and Practicalities: Educating Nurses in Wound Sepsis in the British Hospital, 1870–1920

Abstract

Summary The history of nursing education has often been portrayed as the subordination of nursing to medicine. Yet, as scholars are increasingly acknowledging, the professional boundaries between medicine and nursing were fluid in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when both scientific knowledge and systems of nurse training were in flux. Through its focus on the role of medical practitioners in educating nurses in wound sepsis at four British hospitals between 1870 and 1920, this article attempts to further unite histories of medicine and nursing. It demonstrates that, in this period of uncertainty, the ideas and practices relating to antisepsis, asepsis and bacteriology disseminated to nursing probationers depended on the individual instructor. In demonstrating the localised nature of nursing education, this article argues that further analyses of clinical problems like wound sepsis may enable historians to more clearly identify the importance of professional collaboration within the hospital.

Understanding the development of advanced wound care in the UK: Interdisciplinary perspectives on care, cure and innovation

“…Germ theoretic approaches to disease causation provided renewed justification for such practices, rationalising surgical methods which had already become well-established [14].Until the mid-nineteenth century, nursing was not an activity which was thought to demand particular skill or formal training. As recent historical research has shown, nurse education in wound sepsis remained largely determined by local factors -including the personal inclinations of individual instructors -at a time when the details of bacteriology and their implications for practice were in flux [15]. Against this backdrop, new dressings such as Elastoplast and 'Gamgee Tissue' -a preparation of cotton wool and surgical gauze developed in 1880 by J. Sampson Gamgee, a surgeon based at the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham -provided alternative ways of managing both acute and chronic wounds [16].As well as development of specific surgical innovations, often during the context of warfare, relevant non-surgical ideas included both nursing and sanitary reform, in particular from the Crimea [17].…”

Exploring The Netley British Red Cross Magazine: An example of the development of nursing and patient care during the First World War

“…From November till after the winter clothing was served out, the supply was very deficient, either of shirts, socks, or other articles of underclothing ' (p. 42). (e.g., management of wound sepsis) and its value in health promotion to patients (Howell et al, 2013;Jones et al, 2018). Florence…”

“…From November till after the winter clothing was served out, the (e.g., management of wound sepsis) and its value in health promotion to patients (Howell et al, 2013;Jones et al, 2018). Florence…”

“…Also, the introduction of the miasma theory, advances in bacteriology and microbiology and the discovery of the importance of air, light and water in health were vital at that time. The progression in environmental sanitation was reflected in British Nursing Schools and textbooks between 1860 and 1930, including hygienic standards, practices (e.g., management of wound sepsis) and its value in health promotion to patients (Howell et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2018). Florence Nightingale was one of the promoters of this sanitary movement (Attewel, 1998; Jamieson et al., 1968).…”

Seeing germs, selling germs: translating Anglo-American bacteriology

“…What happened when antiseptics ‘left the clinic,’ to borrow a recent phrase from Marina Hilber (2022)? In the last two decades of the nineteenth century Lister's antiseptic practices were introduced into midwifery, nursing, and a variety of other medical fields (Hanley 2013; Jones et al 2017). Laboratory studies of disease-causing microorganisms and the effectiveness of carbolic acid all pointed to one conclusion.…”