The History Of Nursing

The medical field of nursing has been around helping to save peoples’ lives since the Medieval and Renaissance time periods.

In the medieval time period, the women had multiple roles such as: practitioners, midwives, nurses, and local folk healers. The nurses were around only when needed. They were especially needed around the time when the Black Death was around. They had to do many duties for the sick. People died one at a time dude to the Black Death. They prepared the bodies for the funerals. (The History of Medicine).

There were many types of medicines that were used during this time period. According to lordsandladies.org, “Middle Ages Medicine was extremely basic in an era when terrible illnesses such as the Black Death were killing nearly one third of the population. Medicine was limited. Physicians had no idea what had caused this illness and disease. Catholic churches thought that the illnesses were a punishment from God.”

Medicines were used to treat simple things like headaches and joint pains. Nurses used roses, lavender, sage, and bay (for headaches) and a mixture henbane and hemlock (for aching joints). For stomach pains and sicknesses, nurses used wormwood, mint, and balm. For lung problems, they used medicine made out of liquorice and comfrey. For wounds, they were cleaned with vinegar. Mint could be used for venom.

Diagnosis methods during the early Renaissance time period weren’t different from the medieval period, or middle ages. Nurses or doctors had no clue whatsoever of how to cure very infectious diseases. When someone was diagnosed with syphilis, no one knew what to do at all. For treating diseases, they tried to use superstitious rite and magic. King Charles II was even asked to touch the sick people to...

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...len feet and painful breasts. The best documentation about childbirth and aftercare seems to be provided by illustrations on wooden trays and majolica ware made to be used by the new mother in Renaissance Italy. (http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/WomenMed.html)

Herbal medicine is the use of medicinal plants for prevention and treatment of diseases: it ranges from traditional and popular medicines of every country to the use of standardized and titrated herbal extracts. Generally cultural rootedness enduring and widespread use in a Traditional Medical System may indicate safety, but not efficacy of treatments, especially in herbal medicine where tradition is almost completely based on remedies containing active principles at very low and ultra-low concentrations, or relying on magical-energetic principles. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2206236/)