After 1860, the work of Florence Nightingale began to improve standards of nursing in Britain, and to improve cleanliness in hospitals. But today, Mary Seacole is very well known.
How has the care of patients improved over time? After moving from Scutari, Turkey to Balaklava, Crimea, Cadwaladr was known for the long hours she worked and her insistence on keeping wounds clean. Patient care has progressed and led to improvements in the treatment of illness and disease. She was a fat old woman, this Mrs Gamp, with a husky voice and a moist eye… She wore a very rusty black gown, rather the worse for snuff, and a shawl and bonnet to correspond… The face of Mrs Gamp - the nose in particular - was somewhat red and swollen, and it was difficult to enjoy her society without becoming conscious of a smell of spirits. Nursing was not an occupation for respectable women and it would take a determined individual like Florence Nightingale to change popular opinion.
Florence wanted to become a nurse, but at that time nursing was not the sort of job people like Florence did. Anaesthetics weren’t always popular though as they were uncomfortable for patients.
The problems for patients were pain, infection and bleeding. Sign in, choose your GCSE subjects and see content that's tailored for you. In 1628, William Harvey published his theories on blood circulation and this later allowed the problem of bleeding to be dealt with and the first attempts at blood transfusions. the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet and the proper selection and administration of diets. Strict hygiene rules were enforced, eg patients were washed and bedding was changed regularly. A graph invented by Florence Nightingale which shows the causes of death among soldiers in the Crimean War. She did not get on with Nightingale, who she thought put too much emphasis on regulations and not enough on compassion for the injured. She was brave and very determined. It was not until 1813 that transfusion was reintroduced into medical practice by James Blundell at Guy’s Hospital and by 1873 Sir Thomas Smith’s pioneering work on clotting made survival in surgery more likely. She was one of 16 children from a working class family near Bala in north Wales. To soldiers she was known as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. By the late 1890s Lister’s antiseptic methods led to aseptic surgery and the introduction of sterile instruments in operating theatres. Beds were spaced apart and clean air was allowed to circulate. She changed the way people nursed and helped save many lives.
She also tried to remove rules that stopped nurses from doing their jobs. His spray was not used for long though, because carbolic acid actually damages the tissues and breathing it in causes many problems for doctor as well as patient. She also established the British Hotel near Balaklava to provide, a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers, Attempts to prevent illness and disease – WJEC, Attempts to treat and cure illness and disease – WJEC, Developments in public health and welfare – WJEC, Changes in health and medicine, c.1340 to the present day, Home Economics: Food and Nutrition (CCEA). In just six months she managed to reduce the death rate significantly. Florence Nightingale tells the story of her life, and shows how she grew up to become a nurse in the Crimean War. Another nurse who made her mark in Crimea was Mary Seacole. One of the four health boards in Wales is named after her in recognition of her work. Wards were often cramped and rarely cleaned, so infection spread rapidly.
Our team of exam survivors will get you started and keep you going. It was sent to the government to highlight the … Nightingale had made nursing a respectable profession and had also brought about significant changes in cleanliness and patient care in hospitals. In 1901, Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups that made transfusion even safer for the patient. Florence Nightingale went to the Crimean War to nurse wounded soldiers. Patients were separated according to their illness. In 1864, Joseph Lister introduced an antiseptic spray that by 1866, reduced the death rate in patients by 45.7 per cent. In 1854, when war broke out against Russia, she went to Crimea to care for wounded soldiers.
Returning to Britain, Cadwaladr trained as a nurse and in 1854, at the age of 65, went to Crimea. By the end of the century, surgeons were regularly doing successful internal operations, eg appendectomies. The influence of Florence Nightingale and Betsi Cadwaladr on nursing, Nurses were untrained, and nursing looked upon as a job for uneducated women. James Simpson experiments with chloroform. Our team of exam survivors will get you started and keep you going. More successful was the special dressings he developed which contained carbolic acid to keep the wound clean. Florence Nightingale came from a wealthy family. The final breakthrough came when Queen Victoria accepted the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic during the delivery of her eighth child. She went to a battlefield to help soldiers. She increased respect and reputation for nurses and established training schools. She used her own money to travel from Jamaica to Crimea, where she was often seen going into the battlefield with her medical bag. would have been familiar to many of his readers.
Some doctors believed that pain was good for healing, people didn’t understand how they worked and the side effects on the body were not properly recognised. X-rays (which were discovered in 1895) allowed doctors to see inside the body helping in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. In the early 19th century, nurses had a reputation for drunkenness.
Read about our approach to external linking. During her time there the death rate in Scutari fell from 43 per cent to 2 per cent. By 1898 rubber gloves were used and surgeon’s hands were scrubbed clean beforehand. Charles Dickens’ description of the nurse, Mrs Gamp, in his novel. Nurses were untrained, and nursing looked upon as a job for uneducated women. Charles Dickens’ description of the nurse, Mrs Gamp, in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit would have been familiar to many of his readers.
Advances in medical procedures and medicines means that today, you are likely to be healthier and live longer than at any other time in human history. She was often consulted about the designs of new hospitals which she said should include. She found conditions in the army hospitals were appalling and began to change them for the better. A graph invented by Florence Nightingale which shows the causes of death among soldiers in the Crimean War. Press coverage back in Britain not only made Nightingale famous but also highlighted the need for hospital reform. such as chloroform, which was discovered by James Simpson in 1847, greatly improved the success rate of surgery.
Until Louis Pasteur’s pioneering work on germ theory in the 1850s, surgeons left wounds unprotected. She hated the levels of bureaucracy in the British military hospitals. Though there was a growth in the number of hospitals in the early 19th century, conditions for patients were generally poor. When she returned to Britain in 1856, Nightingale set about transforming nursing. By 1900 there were 64,000 trained nurses.
She travelled the world several times, developing nursing skills as she went. Instead of being just cleaners and minders, nurses were trained to be an essential part of patient care.
She believed in prioritising cleanliness and fresh air, work which was reported in British newspapers. In the early 19th century, nurses had a reputation for drunkenness. Read about our approach to external linking. She also established the British Hotel near Balaklava to provide a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers, and became known as 'Mother Seacole'. For the first time in history, a patient had the prospect of going into hospital, undergoing an operation without pain or infection, and surviving! It was sent to the government to highlight the high number of casualties lost to disease. Like Florence Nightingale, Betsi Cadwaladr also nursed British troops in Crimea and, in some ways, her story is more remarkable. She caught cholera and returned to Britain because of ill health in 1855, and died in 1860. Her family … She left home aged 14 and in 1815, visited Waterloo and saw the suffering of the injured soldiers. They reused bandages and rarely washed their hands or surgical equipment before operations.
When Mary Seacole died in 1881, her story was forgotten. Early blood transfusions often ended disastrously because blood groups had not been discovered, clotting could not yet be prevented and infection was rife. Learn and revise about medicine through time in the UK with BBC Bitesize KS3 History, from Medieval surgery to modern day scientific discoveries. With money raised from public donations, she set up the first training school for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London, putting into practice the ideas she had developed in Crimea. In 1851, she went to Germany to study as a nurse, against her family’s wishes. A young English woman, called Florence Nightingale, decided to help.