Already the Vikings from the Nordic countries knew something about nursing. Many of the brave warriors were severely wounded in the great battles and their women came to the battlefield after the fighting to take care of the wounds and often obtained a huge knowledge of medicine and healing plants. With the spread of Christianity and the building of monasteries the nuns and monks gave a most important contribution to the development of the caring for the sick as the thought of the Samaritan duty is a cornerstone in the Christian re-ligion. The crusades and the cruel fighting between the Christians and the Saracenes had the effect that merciful people raised hospitals along the roads where the crusaders passed. The Middle Age hospitals were often quite devel-oped and were often part of a monastery. L’Hôtel Dieu in Paris was founded around the year 1250 and was one of the biggest hospitals in Europe in the Me-dieval period, although there wasn’t enough space for the patients of which there were several in each bed. In the 17th century we have the fascinating story about a group of French women, both nuns and lay people, who went to Canada and managed to found a health system together with the wild Indians, whom they educated. The 18th century, century of enlightenment, brought a great progress in the caring of the sick. In 1792 John Howard from England visited many hospitals in Europe and wrote his book “Hospitals and Lazaret-tos”. He describes without mercy the hospitals with bad standards in hygiene and treatment and in that way contributed to some amelioration of the condi-tions and better nursing care. The 19th century brought a great development of nursing in Kaiserswerth, Germany, where the married couple Fliedner founded a hospital and an important nursing school. Here Florence Nightingale was in-troduced to nursing practice and got the inspiration for her pioneer work in in-troducing the modern theories of nursing and establishment of nursing schools in England and in many other countries. The “lady with the lamp” became fa-mous for the excellent nursing care that she gave to the soldiers in the Crimean war. With Florence Nightingale a new era of innovation in nursing care took its beginning.
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