THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS IN NURSING

BSN 1 - 1
Group 2
Submitted to: Sir Ronie M. Tiamson, RN, RM, MAN
Members:
AUMENTADO, Chariz Mhae R. LOYOLA, Kharla Maria E.
CAGUIA, Jennica Mariel D. NAVARRO, Anya Catherine C.
CUPINO, Faye Isabelle D. SIBULO, Aliya Clarisse H.
ESPINO, Justin Zedrick C. VERZOSA, Adrian Kurt S.
GUADALUPE, Tracy Mc Keon S.

THE APPRENTICE PERIOD OF NURSING

Many people studied the evolution of nursing. Nursing history is categorized into four periods
namely: Intuitive, Apprentice, Educative, and Contemporary. Following the Intuitive period of
nursing, in which nursing care was provided based on intuition, the next period began - the
Apprentice period of nursing.

WHAT IS APPRENTICE

An apprenticeship is a training program for people who want to be recognized in a

specific field. The person who completes the apprenticeship is known as an apprentice, and this
individual learns the necessary skills of their chosen field by conducting related tasks. During
this program, someone skilled and experienced oversees the training.

APPRENTICE PERIOD / MIDDLE AGES

THE CRUSADE

● The period of apprentice nursing started in the 6th century up to the 18th century.
● This was also known as the period of “on-the-job training”
○ In this era, nursing was performed without any formal education and by people
who were directed by more experienced nurses
○ The nursing staff includes crusaders, prisoners, and the religious orders
● Starts from the founding of Religious Orders in the 6th century through the Crusades in
the 11th century
● What are crusaders and why did they partake in nursing?
○ Crusaders are people who partake in crusades (military expeditions organized by
Western European Christians with the goals of stopping the spread of Islam,
 retaking control of the Holy Land in the eastern Mediterranean, conquering pagan
areas, and retaking formerly Christian territories.)
○ Crusades took place in order to gain religious, political, and economic power.

MILITARY RELIGIOUS ORDERS AND THEIR WORKS

1. Italian Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who were committed to a life of monastic
rigor and formed a system of ranks, promoted the values of unwavering devotion to duty
and conventional subservience to superiors.
2. German Teutonic Knights were formerly known as the House of the Hospitalers of Saint
Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem. They built makeshift hospitals for the injured. They
also united the care for the sick and poor with the profession of arms in their defense
under the title of the Hospitalers of the Blessed Virgin
3. After the Christians took control of Jerusalem, the Knights of St. Lazarus were
established largely to care for the lepers in that city.

OTHER RELIGIOUS GROUP

● The monastic order that the Alexian Brothers belonged to was established in 1348. They
founded the largest nursing school run by a religious order, the Alexian Brothers Hospital
School of Nursing. In the United States, it was open only to men, and it closed in 1969.

RISE OF RELIGIOUS NURSING ORDER

The rise of religious nursing orders occurred among women. They were still focused on their
roles as spouses and mothers, although Christianity fostered equality for entire men (Llego, n.d.).
In order to acquire knowledge, education, career, and execute acts of charity that faith taught
them to help in attaining grace in heaven, one must live through a convent. In addition, various
ladies of royalty initiated several religious orders.

Religious taboos and social restraints affected nursing during religious nursing orders. Hospitals
back then were poorly ventilated, and patients experienced overcrowding, such as sharing in one
bed regardless of their illnesses or whether they were alive or not. Moreover, there was a lack of
proper initiation of environmental sanitation. Older nuns tended to pray and took care of the sick,
while younger nuns were the ones to clean and sanitize dirty linens in the rivers.
RELIGIOUS ORDERS FOUNDED DURING THE PERIOD OF CRUSADES

1. Orders of St. Francis of Assisi

○ 1st order – founded by St. Francis
■ The 1st order involves priests and lay brothers who vowed their lives to
guide a life of prayer, preaching, and penance.
○ 2nd order “The Poor Clare” – founded by St. Claire
■ It consists of secluded nuns who belong to the Order of St. Clare (O.S.C.)
and are regarded as one of the most strict women’s orders of the Roman
Catholic Church that is devoted to prayer, self-mortification, pondering,
manual work, and frequently embracing firmest compound, severe fasting,
and further restraints.
○ 3rd order “The Tertiary Order”
■ It comprises lay men and women who attempt to imitate and follow the
footsteps of St. Francis’ spirit and the Franciscan principles by initiating
works of educating, charity, and welfare works.
2. Beguines - Starting in the Middle Ages, they are the women in the cities of northern
Europe who guide lives of religious devotion without claiming or belonging to
themselves in any religious order.
3. Oblates - In Roman Catholicism, they are lay persons who belong to a religious order or
any institution and live in accordance with their regulations and management.
4. Benedictines - It is named after St. Benedict, its founder. They are members of the Order
of Saint Benedict (O.S.B.) and members of any of the confederated congregations of the
friar, lay brothers, and nuns who take after the run the show of the life of St. Benedict (c.
480–c. 547) and who are otherworldly relatives of the conventional monastics of the early
medieval centuries in Italy and Gaul. The Benedictines, don't constitute a single devout
arrange, since each cloister is independent.
5. Ursulines - It was founded by St. Angela Merici in Italy in 1535 and was the first
institution exclusively for the education of girls.
6. Augustinians - In the Roman Catholic Church, Augustinians, part of any of the Roman
Catholic religious orders and assemblages of men and ladies whose constitutions are
based on the regulations of St. Augustine.

NURSING SAINTS

● St. Clare of Assisi - founder of St. Francis of Assisi's second order; adopted the vows of
poverty, obedience, and chastity; provided nursing care to the ill and the suffering.
● St. Elizabeth of Hungary - She is the daughter of the Hungarian King and was referred
to as the "Patroness of Nurses." Despite her affluence, she led a thrifty life. She made the
 lives of the impoverished joyful and fruitful with all of her fortunes. For the ill and the
poor, she constructed hospitals. She prepared their beds and served the ill by hand. She
fed 300–900 people each day at her gate while also providing for orphans. She hired
those who could work continuously at her hospital.
● St. Catherine of Siena - was the original "Lady with a Lamp." She was the 25th child of
poor Italian immigrants. When she made a lifelong commitment to service at the age of
seven, she earned the moniker "little saint." She was a nurse at a hospital, a prophetess, a
researcher, and a reformer of the church and society.

DARK PERIOD OF NURSING

● This lasted from the 17th to 19th century from the period of reformation until the U.S
Civil War.
● The 16th-century theological, intellectual, political, and cultural upheaval was known as
the "Protestant Reformation". Martin Luther's religious upheaval led to the division of the
Christian religion.
● All properties belonging to hospitals and schools associated with Roman Catholicism
were seized due to Protestantism's rage.
● It was a time when nursing was at its lowest point. Nursing became the most
non-desirable job in society (criminals, prostitutes, drunkards, slaves, and opportunists).
● Because nurses escaped for their lives, there were not enough people to care for the sick.
● Hospitals are forced to close due to a lack of nurses since there was no one to care for the
patients.

REFORMATION IN NURSING

SEVERAL LEADERS SOUGHT TO BRING ABOUT REFORMS AMONG THEM WERE:

● St. Vincent de Paul founded "La Charite," a charity organization, and the "Community
of Sisters of Charity," a group of women dedicated to caring for the sick, destitute,
orphaned, and widowed. In Paris, France, he established the "Sisters of Charity School of
Nursing" where Florence Nightingale completed a second formal education in nursing.
● Louise de Gras was the first Superior and a co-founder of the Community of Sisters of
Charity
● John Howard- A jail reformer who contributed to bettering prison conditions and giving
convicts fresh hope.
 ● Mother Mary Aikenhand- Established the Irish Sisters of Charity to restore the
devotion of the early Christian age to nursing.
● Pastor Theodor Fliedner and Frederika Munster Fliedner- To train deaconesses in
Germany, the Kaiserswerth Institute was founded. the first formal nursing training
program.
○ The Deaconesses School of Nursing / Kaiserswerth Institute for the training of
Deaconesses
■ 1st formal training school for nurses
■ was established in Kaiserswerth, Germany
■ This was where Florence Nightingale received her 3-month course
studying nursing.

Towards the end of the apprentice period, Florence Nightingale continued with her studies which
paved the way for the development of formal nursing education. This started a new era called the
Educative Period.
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