Medical College of Virginia - X Ray Yearbook (Richmond, VA)

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NURSING II u:is in .S5(, tliMI llu-o(l(in- FriiiliuT (ipciuil at Kais runrth, tht- tir-t hHoc)! lor ilcacoiu ' s c-s ; rS ' .o. lu-lnri- Flort ' iR-c N ' i)iluin ;:ili- sut nliout tc-achinj; tlu- first EiiKlish trained nurses at St. Thomas ' ; 1873, b?- fore a trained nnrsc was produced in America; and 1S86, before X ' iryinia ioined the movement. The 17th centurv ua- tlu- dark aj r of nursi[i,i; and the care of the sick sank a low as the hospital in which it va5 practiced. Conditions were little chaiiKcd two hundred years later; when Dickens im- mortalized Saircy (lamp, she with her perkv umbrella and talk of the pudK , slatternly, dowdy-looking fe- male of drunken and didiious habits who was the nurse of that ila . In ' ir inia we encoutitcr nurses as earlv as itii2 iyi the Hospital at Menricopolis, which was supplied with keepers to attend the sick and wounded. These were probably male nurses. While listers ol charity minis- tered to the siek on ihr Ciuitinent, all the I ' .nslish mil- itary hospitaK used soldiers fiu nurses until the middle of the rc;th century. Nursing; in the 17th century was indeed a task tor men eiitailint; plusical labor that would horrify the inodern nurse. I ' he duties of th.- 17th century nurse were not to take the temperature, record the pulse, give daily baths or follow elaborate orders Irom phxsicians, but to prepare food, ijive the droughts reuid;n-| , wash the linen, watch bv the bedside, and hen death came to shroud the body, and to furnish entertaiiuncnt for those vho came to the funeral. Ourint; the iSth cuiiurx niirsini; still maintained th ■ same level as that of the preiediu) cenlur . We can be sure tli.il ini the women of ' iri;inia homes rested th • rhief respon ibilit lor tlu care of the sick, a duty that even the ailvent of specialized nursing has not entirely lifted; however, a new figure did appear during this period, the negro mirse. . ' s maminy, inidwife, wet nurse or nurse maid, she becaiiu ' a figure of increasing importance In C(dnnial N ' irginia. ' irginia owes a lebt of gratitude to ilu various or- ders of Si-ler- which were established during the mi.l- dle part ol the ndh eenlurx. iviting ami nur ng the siek were once .a prominent pan .d tlu .luties of these sisters, luit in recent years, the sisters have given less arul less attention to the professional care of the sick. Such conditions prevailed until 1S60 vhen Florence Nightingale began to turn out the new style nurses. It vas 1873, however, before training schools were established in this country — first at Bellevue Hospital in New York, and later in New Haven at the Massa- chusetts Cleneral Hospital, and then at Johns Hopkins IIo v this movement swept the country aiul fired the imagination of women ever vhere, until toda , when 125,000 trained nurses serve the .Vmerican public, is one of the proud chapters of American medicine. I was one of the most important movements of the 19th century aiul Miss Nightingale, who must be included in any list of great Victorians, was the sole genius be- hinil it. Her conception of a nurse — chaste, sober, hon- est, trulhfid, trustworthy, cpiiet, cheerful, thinking of her patient alone, became the ideal of the oung pro- fession. The first training schoid for nurses in X ' irginia was established at St. Luke ' s Hospital in Richmond in 1886 In 1893 • ' 1 ' training schools opened in Richmond — one at the Retreat for the Sick Hospital, and one at the University College of Medicine Hospital, The Vir- ginia Hospital aiul Training School for Nurses. In 1895 a similar school, comprising a two-year course, was organized by the Medical College of Virginia at the Old Dominion Hospital in Richmond. An effort was made to put this school at once upon a plane of unusual cHiciencx and statiding. The authorities turned to Johns Hopkins Hospital, from which the drew their superintendent. Miss Sadie Heath Cabaniss. a then re- cent graduate mider Miss Hampton. Miss Cabaniss, a native of Petersburg, was a graduate of St. Timothy ' s School before beginning the study of nursing in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She had hardly taken charge of the nursing school in Richmond before her strong personality was felt. Her education, training, ideals, aiul force ol character contributed to the formation of a schoid ol nii.sing w hos,- Idgh standards ar still pointed 01 with pride and gratiliule.

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. y x-rc MEDICAL COLLEGE OF VIRGINIA IN 1S38 tin- Mt ' di Sydney College v was hoped that the ne of the four hundred al nciKirlinent of Ilanipilen- :it- established in Richmond. It iV institution woidd attract sim,- and more students -who were every day leaving Virginia for study in northern med- ical schools. The founders were an exceptional group of men. Augustus L. Warner ( -1S47), graduate of the University of Maryland and fresh froTii the Chair of Anatomy and Surgery in the University ' of ' irginia, became dean and professor of surgerv and surgical anat- omy, lie was the moving spirit in the new enter- prise, for he possessed marked ability as an adminis- trator anil surgeon. John C ullen (1797-1S49), nati ' e of Ireland and graduate of the Uni ersit of Pennsyl- ' ania, vas accorded the chair of the theor and prac- tice of medicine, adorning it until his death in 1849 Lewis Webb Chamberlayne (1798-1854), of proud ' ir- ginia ancestry, likewise a graduate of the University of Pennsyh ' ania, Ivjld tiie chair of inateria medica and therapeutics. Socrates Maupin (1808-1871), a (|uiet little gentleman and ,1 graduate of the Medical De- partment of the University of ' irginia, assumed th ■ chair of chemistry and pharmacy. In 1853 he re- signed to accept a similar position in his Ahna Mater, where he was shortly honored by being made chair- man of the faculty. Richard I.afon Hohannon ( 1SS7), also a graduate of the University of Pennsyl- vania, was made professor of obstetrics and the dis- eases of women and children, a position he acceptably filled until his death in 1S87. Thomas Johnson became professor of anatomy and physiology. He had enjoyed the advantages of study in France under Laennec and had recentl ' taught anatomy and surgery in the T ' ni- ' ersity of A ' irginia. The old Union Hotel on East Main Street became the site of the new college. The old building had been converted into creditable teaching quarters and an in- firmary ' . In a short while plans were under way for a much more elaborate building, and an entirely new structure on Shockoe Hill was soon ready for occu- pancy. The Egyptian building, as it is still called, was erected on land donated by the city with money loaned by the Legislature from its Literary Fund. Lec- ture rooms, dissecting hall, infirmar ' were all under one roof. The enrollment steadily greiv from 46 in 1S3S to Sj in 1851. The attendance did [lot exceed this number until the Civil War, when classes of more than 200 were taught. Ninet per cent of the students were from A ' irginia. The tickets of each professor were paid TH£ EdYPTIAN BUILDINCr for separately, and for many years averaged between fifteen and t vent dollars a subject. The older ncnthern schools served as models upon which was based the course of instruction of the new school. It consisted of two sessions of four months each, the second a repetition of the first. Graduation was contingent on two terms of study preceded by a vear under some reputable physician, or attendance on the summer course, a thesis, an oral examination, and a fee of twenty-five dollars. In the catalogues, stress was laid upon the advantages the school had to offer South- ern students — unlimited material for anatomical dissec- tion, bedside instruction in an infirinary purposely housed under the same roof as the college, and the op- portunity to study diseases peculiar to the South in their native habitat. In fact, the type of clinical instruction given, offering as it did, ready access to ward patients an l ample opportunity to follow in each case the prog- ress of disease, was Invully proclaimed as superior to the amphitheater method vhich was then so popular in Philadelphia.