HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT IN MEDICAL SURGICAL NURSING IN

INDIA :

INTRODUCTION :
In ancient times, when medical lore was associated with good or evil spirits, the sick
were usually cared for in temples and houses of worship. These women had no real training by
today’s standards, but experience taught them valuable skills, especially in the use of herbs and
drugs, and some gained fame as the physicians of their era.

Nursing is a profession focused on advocacy in the care of individuals , families, and

communities in attaining, maintaining and recovering optimal health and functioning. Nursing is
an interpersonal, interactional or partnering ,process between the nurse and the client with the
objective of promoting wellness, preventing illness, and giving the client the tools to be able to
functions at an optimal level of wellness.Nursing is an art and a science by which people are
assisted in learning to care for themselves whenever possible and cared for others when they are
unable to meet their own needs. Nursing promotes health and helps clients move to a higher level
of wellness. This aspect of nursing also includes assisting a client with a terminal illness to
maintain comfort and dignity in the final stage of life.

HISTORY :

 In the history of Indian medicine begins from 3000 BC.

 In the Indus valley civilizations we can see the drainage and we will understand that they
have given importance to health and hygiene.
 In 2000 BC the RIGVEDAmarks the beginning of Indian system of medicine.
 The conditions like fever, cough, constipation, diarrhoea, dropsy abscesses, seizures, skin
diseases including leprosy were treated from that time.
 The herbs were used for the treatment. In 272 BC king Ashokabuilt number of hospitals.
He had given his emphasis on the prevention of the diseases.
 Doctors, Nurses and the Midwifes were also available in that time. Nalanda and
Thaxaxila were the two famous medical schools.
 In 100 B C,the surgical field was the well known by surgeons Sushruta and Charaka.
SUSHRUTA & CHARAKA
 Especially two types of operation at those times were outstanding, Removal of the gall
bladder stone and the plastic surgery of the nose. Nursing in India:
 In the beginning the nursing was hindered by many difficulties like the cast system
among the Hindus, the Pardha system among the Muslims and the low status of the
women.
 In the beginning period the nurse has a servant image so no one was ready for nursing.

 The military nursing was the earliest type of the nursing in 1664 the British east India
companyhelped to start a hospital for soldiers in madras (St. George HOSPITAL).The
company appointed staff was served in the hospital.
 In 1854the government sanctioned training school for the midwives.
 1864 Miss Florence Nightingalestarts the efforts to reform the hospitals. St. Stephens
Hospital Delhi .
 1864 - First to trainIndian girls as nurses. .
 In 1871the government, general hospital of madras took a plan to train the nurses. The
nurses from the England were the in charge of the training and the students were those
who previously received there diploma in midwifery.
 1905 – T.N.A.I established.

 1926 – Madras state formed the first registration council.

 1946 – First four year Basic Bachelor degreeprogram established in R.A.K
(RajkumariAmritKaur College of Nursing)Delhi and C.M.C Vellore.
 After 1947 the many changes begin to take place. The attitude towards the nursing begins
to change and the nursing begin to see as a profession. The Indian Nursing Council was
passed by ordinance on December 31, 1947. The council was constituted in 1949.
 The development of Nursing in India was greatly influenced by the Christian
missionaries, World War, British rule and by the International agencies such as the
World Health Organization UNICEF, the Red Cross, UNSAID etc.
 1960 – First Masters Degree program was started in R.A.K College of Nursing Delhi. .
 In 1970the WHO recognized nursing as a profession. Nursing today provides an ever
widening scope of opportunity for service. Today nurses enjoy many rights and
privileges, but the desired standards by the complete dedication for the profession.
Medical surgical nursing :

 Medical surgical Nursing is a nursing speciality which is concerned with care of adult
patients in a broad range of settings.
 Traditionally, medical surgical nursing was an entry level position, a stepping stone to
speciality areas.
 Advances in medicine and surgery have resulted in medical- surgical nursing evolving
into its own specialty.
 The ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SURGICAL NURSES (AMSN) is a specialty nursing
organization dedicated to nurturing medical-surgical nurses as they advance their careers.
 Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages,
families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. It includes the
promotion of health, the prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying
people. -WHO
 The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in performance
of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or peaceful death) that he/she
would perform unaided if he/she had the necessary strength, will or knowledge.
-VIRGINA HENDERSON(1966)

 In the 17th cent., St. Vincent de Paul began to encourage women to undertake some form of
training for their work, but there was no real hospital training school for nurses until one was
established in Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1846.

 There, Florence Nightingale received the training that later enabled her to establish, at St.
Thomas’s Hospital in London, the first school designed primarily to train nurses rather than to
provide nursing service for the hospital

 In the United States, nursing modernized rapidly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The number of hospitals nationwide grew from only 149 in 1873 to 4,400 in 1910. With this
growth, new positions for nurses developed, and nursing gained respectable social status.

 Nursing subsequently became one of the most important professions open to women until the
social changes brought by the revival of the feminist movement that began in the 1960s.
 During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States, adult patients in
many of the larger hospitals were typically assigned to separate medical, surgical, and
obstetrical wards.

 Nursing education in hospital training schools reflected these divisions to prepare nurses for
work on these units

 Early National League of Nursing Education (NLNE) curriculum guides treated medical
nursing, surgical nursing, and disease prevention (incorporating personal hygiene and public
sanitation) as separate topics.

 By the 1930s, however, advocates recommended that medical and surgical nursing be taught
in a single, interdisciplinary course, because the division of the two was considered an
artificial distinction. Surgical nursing came to be seen as the care of medical patients who
were being treated surgically.

 The NLNE’s 1937 guide called for a “Combined Course” of medical and surgical nursing

 Students were expected to learn not only the theory and treatment of abnormal physiological
conditions, but also to provide total care of the patient by understanding the role of health
promotion and the psychological, social, and physical aspects that affected a patient’s health.

 1960s, nursing schools emphasized the interdisciplinary study and practice of medical and
surgical nursing.

 1960s and 1970s, standards were developed for many nursing specialties, including medical-
surgical nursing.

 Standards, Medical-Surgical Nursing Practice, written by a committee of the Division on

Medical-Surgical Nursing of the American Nurses’ Association (ANA), was published in
1974. It focused on the collection of data, development of nursing diagnoses and goals for
nursing, and development, implementation, and evaluation of plans of care.

 A Statement on the Scope of Medical-Surgical Nursing Practice followed in 1980.

 In 1991, the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) was formed to provide an

independent specialty professional organization for medical-surgical and adult health nurses.
 In 1996, the AMSN published its own Scope and Standards of Medical-Surgical Nursing
Practice

 The second edition appeared in 2000 . Both the ANA and AMSN documents stated that while
only clinical nurse specialists were expected to participate in research, all medical-surgical
nurses must incorporate research findings in their practice.