The history of modern nursing usually starts with Florence Nightingale, even though the roots of nursing date back to the mid-19th century. The accomplishments of Nightingale overshadowed other approaches to nurse the ill. Much of the nursing of the sick took place at home for centuries and was the responsibility of relatives, friends, and esteemed members of the community with reputations as effective healers. This is where a Nursing Agency Stroud way such as Take 5 Healthcare helps in today’s society.
Men took on active nursing roles during epidemics, including cholera, typhus, and smallpox. For example, Stephen Girard, for his brave and compassionate nursing of the victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic, earned the hearts of the people of his adopted city of Philadelphia.
Many without families to care for them find themselves in hospitals as urbanisation expanded, where the standard of nursing care varied enormously. Some patients were given exceptional care. In the hospitals they founded, women from religious nursing orders were especially known for the quality of the nursing care they provided. For the nursing care of patients, other hospitals relied on the rehabilitation of patients or hired men and women. Often this care was excellent; often it was deplorable, and by the late 19th century, as improvements in medical procedures and therapies demanded competent nurses, the unreliability of hospital-based nursing care became a major issue.