Ordered to Care – Chapter 3

1. Ordered to Care – Chapter 3 Character as skill: the ideology of discipline

2. Character as skill: the ideology of discipline • Transformation of hospitals • Chronic care to acute care • Training of nurses introduced in 1873 • “invention of the modern hospital”

3. “All Our Women are Florence Nightingales” • Civil War was the first U.S. war in which women as nurses played a major role • Women motivated by patriotism, familial duty, or search for meaningful work and adventure • However most faced filth, stench, disorder, the severely wounded and dying and physician hostility • Many gave up nursing and turned to the Sanitation Commission • Civil War taught us that there was a need for the organized training of nurses in the military and back in civilian hospitals

4. A Woman of Character Character Virtues Character was to be the major difference between untrained and the new trained nurses Training aimed to mold or “retemper” character • “Womanly” • Attentive • Trustworthy • Submission • Self-sacrifice • Altruism • Behavior • A “gentlewoman”

5. The Monitoring of Student Behavior • Majority of training focused on behavior not nursing techniques • Quietness, poise, maturity, physical appearance • Serious transgressions • Included crudeness, sexual displays, comradeship with the “help”, drunkenness, pregnancy, or refusal to follow physicians’ orders • Punishment was usually suspension or dismissal