Foundations and History of Nursing

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, eras, concepts, and institutions from the lecture notes on the history, development, and practice of nursing.

Often considered the first nursing theorist; defined nursing as using the patient’s environment to assist recovery and founded the Nightingale Training School in 1860.

Florence Nightingale

Virginia Henderson

Modern nurse who defined the unique function of nursing as assisting individuals—sick or well—to perform activities contributing to health or recovery and to gain independence rapidly.

Martha Rogers

Proposed nursing as a humanistic science dedicated to maintaining and promoting health, preventing illness, and caring for the sick and disabled.

Sister Callista Roy

Theorist who created the Adaptation Model, viewing nursing as a system of knowledge prescribing analysis and action related to care of the ill person.

American Nurses Association (ANA) – 2003 Definition

Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

History

The study of past human thought and actions as they become patterns in our lives.

Intuitive Period

Era of untaught, instinctive nursing practiced from prehistoric times to about the 11th century; based on compassion, superstition, and magic.

Shaman

Medicine man or witch doctor in prehistoric cultures believed to heal through white magic.

Trephining

Ancient practice of drilling a hole in the skull to release evil spirits, performed without anesthesia.

Code of Hammurabi

Babylonian set of laws regulating medical practice, sanitation, surgery, and public health.

Moses – Father of Sanitation

Israelite leader who promulgated laws on communicable-disease control and circumcision; emphasized hospitality and charity.

Caduceus

Symbol of the medical profession originating from Greek mythology.

Hippocrates

Greek physician known as the Father of Scientific Medicine; advocated systematic observation.

Hygeia

Greek goddess of health and healthy living; sometimes revered as an embodiment of nursing.

Fabiola

Roman matron who converted to Christianity and turned her home into the first Christian hospital.

Apprentice Period

Era (11th century–1836) when nursing was learned on the job in religious orders and military crusades.

Kaiserswerth Institute

German training center for deaconesses founded by Pastor Theodor Fliedner and his wife; Nightingale studied here.

Knights of St. John of Jerusalem

Military religious order providing nursing care to wounded crusaders.

Teutonic Knights

German order that established tent hospitals for the wounded during the Crusades.

Knights of St. Lazarus

Crusader order devoted to nursing care of lepers.

Alexian Brothers

Men’s religious order that founded hospitals and a U.S. nursing school exclusively for men (closed 1969).

Order of St. Francis of Assisi

Secular religious order devoted to poverty and service to the poor; caring for the sick was a core activity.

The Beguines

Lay community of women founded in 1170 devoted to nursing and service to the suffering.

Dark Period of Nursing

Time (17th–19th century) when nursing reputation declined; work done by untrained, undesirable women after the Reformation.

Martin Luther

Leader of the Protestant Reformation whose upheaval contributed to hospital closures and nursing decline.

Sairey Gamp

Fictional character by Charles Dickens symbolizing the disreputable nurse of the Dark Period.

Theodor Fliedner

Pastor who reopened professional nursing with the Kaiserswerth Deaconess Institute in 1836.

Gertrude Reichardt

First matron of the Deaconess School of Nursing at Kaiserswerth.

Nightingale Era

Period beginning with Florence Nightingale’s reforms during the Crimean War (1854) and her subsequent educational initiatives.

Notes on Nursing

Nightingale’s influential essay on manipulating the environment to aid recovery.

Notes on Hospitals

Nightingale’s work on hospital planning and management, including maternity (lying-in) institutions.

Harriet Tubman

Civil War nurse who guided slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad; nicknamed “Moses of her people.”

Sojourner Truth

Abolitionist and nurse who advocated for women’s rights during the American Civil War.

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Appointed Superintendent of Union Army female nurses in 1861.

Jean Henri Dunant

Organizer of the 1864 conference that founded the Red Cross.

Clara Barton

Founder of the American Red Cross in 1881.

Isabel Hampton Robb

Early U.S. nursing leader; organized Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and authored standard textbooks.

Mary Adelaide Nutting

Reduced nursing students’ workday to 8 hours; helped extend nurse training to three years.

Lilian Wald

Founder of the Henry Street Settlement; regarded as the founder of Public Health Nursing.

Lavinia Dock

Nursing leader, suffragist, and prolific writer active in securing U.S. women’s voting rights.

Margaret Higgins Sanger

Nurse activist who founded Planned Parenthood.

Linda Richards

Recognized as America’s first trained nurse (graduated 1872); reformed multiple hospitals and started Japan’s first nurse-training school.

Mary Mahoney

First professionally trained African-American nurse (graduated 1879).

Nightingale Pledge

Professional oath written in 1893 for graduating nurses, modeled on the Hippocratic Oath.

Caroline Hampton Robb

First nurse to wear rubber gloves, designed by Dr. William Halstead.

Clara Louise Maass

Nurse who voluntarily exposed herself to yellow fever research; died from the disease.

Edith Cavell

World War I nurse executed for helping Allied soldiers escape; hailed as a martyr.

Mary Breckinridge

Founded the Frontier Nursing Service and the first U.S. midwifery school.

Contemporary Nursing Period

Era after World War II characterized by scientific, technological, and social advances (1945–present).

World Health Organization (WHO)

UN agency established in 1948 to coordinate international public-health efforts.

Aerospace Nursing

Specialty developed by Colonel Pearl Tucker at Cape Kennedy to support space missions.

Hospital Real de Manila

First hospital in the Philippines (1577) for Spanish soldiers, later civilians.

San Lazaro Hospital

Philippine hospital founded in 1578 exclusively for lepers.

Iloilo Mission Hospital School of Nursing

First nursing school in the Philippines (1906); Rose Nicolet served as first superintendent.

St. Paul Hospital School of Nursing

Training school opened in Manila (1908) under the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres.

Philippine General Hospital School of Nursing

Established 1907; Anastacia Giron Tupas became its first Filipino Chief Nurse and Superintendent.

St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing

Episcopalian school in Manila (1907); Helen Hicks was first principal.

Mary Johnston Hospital School of Nursing

Methodist institution started as Bethany Dispensary; became emergency hospital during WWII.

University of Santo Tomas College of Nursing

First college-level nursing program in the Philippines (established 1947).

Anastacia Giron Tupas

Founder of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA).

Cesaria Tan

First Filipino nurse to earn a master’s degree.

Loreto Tupaz

Called the “Dean of Philippine Nursing” and the “Nightingale of Iloilo.”

Definition of Profession

Occupation requiring extensive education and specialized knowledge that sets its own standards to protect the public.

Professional Nurse

Individual educated in the art and science of nursing who practices for the social purposes of the profession.

Primary Characteristics of a Professional Nurse

Education, theory & research, service, autonomy, code of ethics, and caring.

Nursing as an Art

Dynamic skills and methods used to assist individuals in recovery and health promotion.

Nursing as a Science

Use of scientific knowledge to diagnose and treat human responses to actual or potential health problems.

Caregiver (Nursing Role)

Primary role focusing on providing full, partial, or supportive-educative care.

Communicator (Nursing Role)

Role involving verbal or written exchange with clients, families, and the health team.

Teacher (Nursing Role)

Nurse who helps clients learn health information and procedures to restore or maintain health.

Client Advocate

Role of protecting clients’ rights and ensuring their needs and wishes are respected.

Counselor

Nurse who provides emotional and psychological support to help clients handle stress.

Leader

Nurse who influences individuals or groups to achieve goals in health care settings.

Case Manager

Nurse coordinating multidisciplinary care to ensure client-centered, cost-effective outcomes.

Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN)

Two-year college program conceptualized by Dr. Mildred Montag to quickly prepare bedside nurses.

Diploma Nursing Program

Hospital-based apprenticeship model without standardized curriculum; provided staffing for hospitals.

Practical Nursing Program

9–12-month vocational program preparing LPN/LVNs to provide basic technical care under RN supervision.

Wellness

State of well-being achieved by behaviors that enhance life quality and maximize potential.

Health Promotion

Activities aimed at enhancing a healthy lifestyle for individuals and communities.

Illness Prevention

Nursing goal of maintaining optimal health by avoiding disease through measures like immunizations.

Restorative Care

Nursing focus on the ill client, from early detection to rehabilitation and recovery.

Care of the Dying

Nursing actions that comfort terminal clients and support families, often provided in hospices.

Patient

Person suffering an illness or imbalance who seeks nursing or medical assistance; derived from Latin ‘to suffer.’

Nurse

Professional who nourishes or cherishes the sick, injured, or disabled; advises on illness prevention and health promotion.

‘Nutrix’

Latin root of the word nurse, meaning ‘to nourish.’

Scope of Nursing Practice

Promotion of health, prevention of illness, restoration of health, and care of the dying.

Good Samaritan Principle

Biblical basis for caring, illustrating the Christian value ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’

Pope Urban II

Called the Crusades, leading to the establishment of military religious nursing orders.

Cadet Nurse Corps

WWII U.S. program that accelerated nurse training to meet military and civilian needs.

WHO – Health as a Fundamental Right

Post-WWII principle declaring health a basic human right, guiding global nursing practice.