mexogre wrote:If I remember my nursing history correctly, the FIRST nurses were a group of men who formed a chivalrous (knight's) order to care for those wounded on the battle field.
Yes, you are correct... you win the keys to my Vette,
J/K!
Men in Nursing: A Historical Time Line
The world's first nursing school founded in India about 250 B.C. Only men were considered "pure" enough to become nurses.
The term "nosocomial" meaning "hospital acquired" stems from the nosocomi, the men whom provided nursing care in ancient Rome.
In 300 A.D., a group of men, the Parabolani, started a hospital providing nursing care during the Black Plague epidemic.
St. Benedict founded the Benedictine nursing order, while St. Alexis was in the fifth century. Military,
religious and lay orders of men including the Knights Hospitalers, the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of St. Lazarus and the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony provided nursing care during the Middle Ages.
The Alexian Brothers began as informal groups of laymen about 1300 A.D., providing nursing care for the poor.
St. John of God (1495-1550) devoted his life to serving the ill and mistreated and was canonized in 1690. St. Camillius (1510-1614) is credited with developing the first field ambulance. He was canonized in 1746. The symbol of his order, the red cross, remains the primary symbol of health care. In 1930, St. Camillius and St. John of God were named co-patron saints of nursing.
First American Nurse; Seventy years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Friar Juan de Mena was shipwrecked off the south Texas coast. He is the first identified nurse in what was to become the United States.
The Crimean War started in 1853. A biographer of Florence Nightingale, regarded as the first modern female nurse, noted that male "orderlies" provided nursing care prior to and after Nightingale's arrival at the Crimean front.
In 1859, Dunant provided nursing care after the Battle of Solferino. He was helped found the International Red Cross and the Geneva Convention. He won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
During the U.S. Civil War, both sides had military men serving as nurses. Men were the majority of the front line nurses while female nurses were typically restricted to general hospitals in the major cities.
Both the Crimean War and the U. S. Civil War decimated the male population. Without men to help with the labor, many women were unable to continue farming and moved to cities and became "matrons" in military hospitals. The military continued to primarily use men as nurses.
In 1866, the Alexians built their first hospital in Chicago, Illinois and in 1869, opened a second hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Today their work continues around the world.
In 1898 the U.S. fought a brief war with Spain. The Daughters of the American Revolution recruited contract female physicians and nurses during the war.
Nursing Schools For Men; The Mills School for Nursing and St. Vincent's Hospital School for Men were founded in New York in 1888. The Pennsylvania Hospital opened a school for female nurses in 1914 and simultaneously opened a separate men's nursing school. However, men were not allowed to attend some state-supported nursing schools until 1982.
Army Nurse Corps; In 1901, the Army Nurse Corps was formed. Only women could serve as nurses and military nursing changed from being predominately male to exclusively female, which furthered the process of the feminization of nursing. During World War I & II there were nursing shortages and women were given tuition, room, board, uniforms and a stipend to attend nursing school, but were not required to enter the service. In a time when few men were practicing nursing in the U.S., two men worked to promote men in nursing. Leroy N. Craig, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital men's nursing school, fought for the rights of men to participate in the American Nurses Association. Nurse Luther Christman volunteered to serve on the front, if he could serve as a nurse. Christman was turned down for combat duty as a nurse by the U.S. Surgeon General.
Men Again Serve As Military Nurses; Not until 1955, after the Korean War, were men again permitted to serve as military nurses. During the intervening decades men who were registered nurses enlisted or drafted, but were not assigned as nurses.
On 9 AUG 1955, President Eisenhower signed into law H.R. 2559; Male RNs were authorized reserve commissions in the ANC. In 1961, Ohio Representative Frances Payne Bolton introduced a bill to Congress to authorize regular commissions for Male RNs.
However, 11 years passed before Male RNs were to receive regular commissions in the ANC. Due to efforts made by the 12th Chief of the ANC, COL Mildred Irene Clark, on 30 SEP 1966 [Public law 89-609] authorized regular commissions for Male RNs.
* ANC info source from the book written by Mary T. Sarnecky, COL (R), USA, A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps [ISBN 0-8122-3502-9].
So, today is a very important day in history for the Army Nurse Corps, especially the reserve male nurse Soldiers!
HOOAH!
