3 ‘In the company of those similarly afflicted’
-
Martin S. McNamara
Abstract
This chapter offers a somewhat oblique perspective on nursing practice. With a focus on 'the life of a consumptive' in early twentieth-century Ireland, the chapter examines the experiences of the sanatorium patient as told by individual patients themselves and by nurses and physicians writing in the professional press of the period. In the first half of the twentieth century, pulmonary tuberculosis was one of the major causes of death in Ireland. The architectural form of the mid-twentieth century sanatorium ward, with its veranda and its spaces for the treatment and care for each patient, reveals conceptualisations and unfolding discursive formations of tuberculosis in the period. The introduction of the BCG vaccine and anti-tuberculosis drug therapy in the early 1950s quickly and radically altered the whole landscape of treatment and care, resulting in the demise of the sanatorium and the sanatorium nurse.
Abstract
This chapter offers a somewhat oblique perspective on nursing practice. With a focus on 'the life of a consumptive' in early twentieth-century Ireland, the chapter examines the experiences of the sanatorium patient as told by individual patients themselves and by nurses and physicians writing in the professional press of the period. In the first half of the twentieth century, pulmonary tuberculosis was one of the major causes of death in Ireland. The architectural form of the mid-twentieth century sanatorium ward, with its veranda and its spaces for the treatment and care for each patient, reveals conceptualisations and unfolding discursive formations of tuberculosis in the period. The introduction of the BCG vaccine and anti-tuberculosis drug therapy in the early 1950s quickly and radically altered the whole landscape of treatment and care, resulting in the demise of the sanatorium and the sanatorium nurse.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Preface xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Care and cure in nursing work
- 1 Baby and infant healthcare in Dresden, 1897–1930 21
- 2 The taste of war 35
- 3 ‘In the company of those similarly afflicted’ 52
- 4 ‘Hurting and caring’ 69
- 5 A poverty of leadership 82
- 6 Beyond the cuckoo’s nest 100
-
Part II Public health and nursing work
- 7 The cholera epidemic of 1892 and its impact on modernising public health and nursing in Hamburg 123
- 8 ‘Some kindred form of medical social work’ 144
- 9 ‘Community healthcare’ 163
- 10 Nurses in schools, coal towns and migrant camps 180
- Index 200
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Preface xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Care and cure in nursing work
- 1 Baby and infant healthcare in Dresden, 1897–1930 21
- 2 The taste of war 35
- 3 ‘In the company of those similarly afflicted’ 52
- 4 ‘Hurting and caring’ 69
- 5 A poverty of leadership 82
- 6 Beyond the cuckoo’s nest 100
-
Part II Public health and nursing work
- 7 The cholera epidemic of 1892 and its impact on modernising public health and nursing in Hamburg 123
- 8 ‘Some kindred form of medical social work’ 144
- 9 ‘Community healthcare’ 163
- 10 Nurses in schools, coal towns and migrant camps 180
- Index 200
