Growth of Women in Nursing

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According to Dietz and Lehozky (1963), the discipline of nursing slowly evolved from the traditional role of women, humanitarian aims, religious ideals, common sense, trial and error, war, and feminism. To truly appreciate where we are going, it is important to know where we have been. Sullivan (2002) mentioned that in many societies, the provision of nursing care was a role that was assigned to female members. As caretakers of children, family and community, it was natural that women were the nurses, the caregivers, as human society evolved (Sullivan, 2002). Because women traditionally provided nurturance to their own infants, it was assumed these same caring approaches could be extended to sick and injured community members as well. Women who died in child birth or who could not nurse their child had the child nursed by a ‘wet nurse’ (Dietz and Lehozky, 1963). Kelly and Joel (2002) argued that in other societies, care of the sick was a role assigned to medicine men, shamans, or other male tribesmen. Because no formal education in the care of the sick was available, the earliest nurses learned their art through oral traditions passed from generation to generation, from observations of others caring for the sick, and many times, through a process of trial and error (Kelly and Joel, 2002). Wall (2003) asserted that during the early Christian era the nursing ideals of charity, service to others, and self-sacrifice were in harmony with the teachings of the early Christian church. Nursing care at this time was more structured, but still it was far from professional nursing. Women continued to carry out most of the care for the poor and the sick. The church set up a system for care that included the role of the deaconess, who provided care in homes (Wall, 2003). Women who served in these roles had to follow strict rules set by the church. This role

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