Nursing During WWI

8/2/2019 Nursing During WWI

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Spanish American War

& WWIMary Murad & Sandra Haggerty



• April-August 1898• Spain declared war on the U.S. because the U.S. supported

Cuba's wish to be independent of Spanish rule.

• “Remember the Maine!”: War slogan, a submarine mine

exploded in Havana Harbor in Cuba, sinking the U.S. battleshipMaine and killing 260 servicemen.

• The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1898




Spanish American War & Nursing

•

Nurses serving aboard thehospital ship RELIEF

• Poor sanitation and Disease in

Army camps

• Women nurses employed to

work in Cuba, military hospitals,

and U.S. hospital ships

• Untrained nurses and

volunteers all helped in the war

effort• Typhoid fever, Yellow Fever,

Malaria



Hospital Ship RELIEF in Cuban Waters Operating

Room



Spanish American War & Nursing

• Many soldiers required hospitalization at home

• More deaths due to illness and disease compared to

battle injuries• Nursing corps post war: increase in the number of women

nurses

• Later large decrease due to unsupportive military leaders




Nurse Clara Maass died as a

result of yellow fever. Army

Contract Nurse Maass

volunteered to participate in

an experimental treatment

program,after having

survived the war. A stampwas issued in her honor in

1976.

Clara Maass



Nursing during World War I: 1914-1918

• More than 21,000 women enlisted in the U.S. Army during

World War I to serve as uniformed nurses. Nearly half of them

served in overseas locations.

• The mass deployment of nurses during World War I removed

them from a structured professional culture and thrust theminto an unfamiliar world of warfare where they became part of

a team.

• Nurses served in base hospitals, Convalescent (evacuation)

hospitals, casualty clearing stations (triage), trains, and

transport planes

• Nursing during WWI led to many advancements in medicine

and nursing care.



Nursing during World War I: Trench Warfare

The use of trench warfare during the war led to spread of many diseases and

other health concerns. Trench warfare often led to stalemates that triggered

many more casualties from vermin, disease, trench fever, trench foot, and

dysentary.

• Living in trenches meant battling vermin such as rats and lice. Rats were

large and very bold while lice ran rampant in the camps. Soldiers would

either pick the lice off or burn them off with a lighter.

• Trench fever caused a “shooting pain in the chin followed by a very high

fever.” Trench fever accounted for 15% of all cases of sickness in the

British army.

• Trench foot was caused by standing and fighting in trenches saturated

with water and mud. Feet would go numb, turn red and eventually blue.If left untreated, toes and sometimes whole foot could turn gangrenous.

• Dysentary was caused when soldiers either ended up fighting or hiding

in the latrines dug within the trenches. Bacteria from the feces

contaminated food and water which caused inflammation of the bowel,

stomach pains, diarrhea, vomiting and fever.



Nursing during World War I: Trenches



Nursing during World War I: Volunteers

By 1914, the British army had formed an

elite corps of army nurses. Many youngwomen convinced parents to allow

them to join the Red Cross to “improve

their domestic skills.” These volunteers

were organized into groups under the

Voluntary Aid Detachments which was

managed by the Red Cross. Eventually

volunteers were sent to serve in France

and Belgium primarily as nurses

assistants.

American women began to volunteer

through the British Red Cross primarily

as nurses and orderlies.



Nursing during World War I: Nursing Progress

The war led to improvements in educational requirements and training programs for

nurses in America. It also helped to establish acceptance and respect for women inthe profession. Training of nurses before this time emphasized the handmaiden

approach to nursing which emphasized the role of nurses as a handmaiden (servant)

to the physician and following WWI, nurses began to be seen as equal members of the

team.

Criteria for becoming a nurse also became morestrict:

• Nurses could not be married

• Had to be a graduate from an approved school

of nursing

• Had to be female –

males were not accepted• Had to be between ages of 25-35



Nursing during World War I: Medical

Advancements

• Concept of triage introduced: Casualty clearing stations used an Order of

Evacuation as guideline if necessary to move the station – had a way or

sorting injuries and expected outcomes to maximize the number of

survivors.

• Anesthesia: chloroform was primary anesthetic agent at beginning of warand was found to be potentially toxic. Eventually surgeons found a safer and

more effective agent that was a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen that

was easily controlled by stopping the gas.

•Infection Control: Dr. Theodore-Marin Tuffier performed wide debridementof the infected area in an attempt to avoid amputation – found that

immediately removing dead and damaged flesh helped prevent infection

and gas gangrene. Also followed practice of inserting drains that provided

constant irrigation.



Nursing during World War I: Medical

Advancements

Skin grafting: Tuffier’s debridement methods led to development of skin

grafting – large debrided wounds took months to heal from inside out and the

healing process could be expedited if the wound was protected by skin.

Blood Typing: Karl Landsteiner, a biochemist and pathologist working in

United States, discovered blood groups in 1901 and the importance of

matching blood groups between donors and recipients. American physicians

and nurses introduced Landsteiners work in early 1915.

Prothetics: Loss of jawbones, cheeks noses, eyes and ears left disfiguring holes

– specialists called in to create new nostrils, insert artificial eyes, or to repairor replace a shattered jaw.



Nursing during World War I: Nursing care

• American, British and French women volunteered in mass numbers – many

giving up luxuries of a privileged life.

• They travelled with barest essentials to tend injured, sick and dying men.

• Nurses were forced to endure the harshest of environments, especially

during the frigid winters in Europe. Their ankles swelled, and their feetconstantly ached from standing in cold wet mud for hours.

• Nurses put themselves at risk for disease or injury, just as the soldiers did,

but without a weapon to defend themselves with or even the pay (many

were volunteers).

• There were no specialty divisions at the time: nurses assisted surgeons in

OR’s, in wards, removed blood encrusted uniforms, bathed the men,

administered blood, gave injections, monitored vitals, debrided, sutured and

dressed wounds as well as fed, read to and cradled the dying.



Nursing and Women post World War I

War lead to more freedom for women. Thenumber of men at war meant women were

forced to take over work in factories and

farms.

Army and Navy nurse corps were fully

established and functioning – women’s

suffrage movement was in full swing

following the war – women who had given

up so much to serve alongside the soldiers

during the army felt they had a right to vote

and help determine future of the nation –

19th amendment signed into constitution in

1920.



References

Feminist Review , No. 79, Latin America: History, war and independence(2005), pp. 20-35

Holder, V (2004). From Handmaiden to Right Hand: World War I and

Advancements in Medicine. AORN Journal, vol. 80 (5), pg. 911-923.

Holder, V (2004). From Handmaiden to Right Hand: World War I – The

Mud and the Blood . AORN Journal, vol 80 (4), pg. 652-665.

Kalish,P. and Kalish, B. (2004). American Nursing: A History (4th Ed). New

York, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Lovett, C. (1998). Remembering the Maine: Teaching about the Spanish-

American.. Social Studies, 89(3), 123.

Nursing During WWI

Documents

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