Editor's note: This is the third in...

Editor's note: This is the third in an ongoing series about the history of perioperative nursing in the United States. The first couple articles in this series appeared in the September and October 2003 issues of the AORN Journal.

Before the US Civil War, it was awaited that women would be the primary caregivers in their dwellings and nurses were men who serv in the military. During the Civil War, however, women were called relating to to act as caregivers to the damageed because there were not enough male fosters to care for the mass casualties. These women started from offering whatever assistance they could They provided first aid and rations and gathered supplies, but before drawn out they found themselves in earnestly more demanding roles. For example, Dorthea Dix, who already had devot long of her life to helping the mentally ill, was appointed superintendent of the United States Army nourish Corps. Her job was to preferable and train nurses for the Union Army. (1)

This was a time of fresh experiences for the military and for the women who offered to serve as caregivers. There were no nursing drills in the United States at the time, and social customs of the day did not encourage women to leave their households and families to tend to the injuries and illnesses of men other than family members. When Dix called for female tenders to join the Army feed at the breast Corps, she realized that the work would require women of "good health, courage, and character." (2 (p36))

Although they wanted to benefit many women had difficulty finding their place in the war effort. Crusaders, of that kind as Clara Barton and Mary "Mother" Bickerdyke, chose different paths. Instead of joining Dix's Army promote Corps, they volunteered in other ways. While Dix's cherishs were trained to care for the griefed and sick in large hospitals, Barton serv onward the battlefields and Bickerdyke serv through gathering supplies and organizing hospitals for the Union. It is estimated that 10000 women provided care to sick and panged soldiers during the Civil War. (3)

When the war cessationed in 1865, the women who had serv as promotes returned to their homes. The war was athwart but resurrected social customs dictated one time again that nursing was not a do job-work for women. Fortunately, underlying generally receiveds of change were beginning to stir.

single WOMAN'S QUEST

The women who serv during the Civil War were robust intelligent, independent, and useful outside of the family and many young women raise much to admire in these pioneers. Women like Linda Richards, who eventually helped to establish nursing as a legitimate part for women, had goals that did not include marriage and children.

From early childhood, Richards wanted to care for the sick. When she was nine, she helped care for her ailing mother, and at the age of 13 she traveled with a local rural parts physician to visit and care for patients in succession his rounds. It was 1854 however, and there were no female foments in the United States. The Crimean War had just started in southern Russia, and Florence Nightingale was just beginning her work as a British military nurse

by the agency of the age of 15, Richards had thrown away her parents and was living with her ailing grandfather, who, make uneasyed about her future, insisted she list in the St Johnsbury Academy for teachers near their household hi Vermont. Richards agreed to attend to please her grandfather, moreover she hated the curriculum and barely passed her examinations. on graduation, she returned to her grandfather's dwelling and was hired as the local schoolmistress. To her surprise, many of her observers were old friends she had helped care for when working with the physician several years earlier. They were eager to remind her of the belonging and compassionate care she had provided them in times of need

Richards continued to teach until her grandfather died in 1858 She then sold the family farm and hired not at home as a tutor in private hearthstones in 1860, at the age of 19 she took a scope with a widow in Newport, Vt and met the widow's nephew, George Poole Richards and Poole pitiless in love and planned to marry in May of 1861 History intervened, however, when the Civil War began in April and Poole joined the ranks of the Union Army, thus postponing the wedding.

During the four years of the Civil War, Richards continued to teach. Sadly, Poole was seriously injured during the war, and on his return home, he refused to marry Richards, knowing that he did not have protracted to live. She cared for him, however, until his death in the winter of 1869

Following Poole's death, a devastated Richards decided to follow her lifelong dream of becoming a nourish at the breast She had heard of the Nightingale seminary and Home for Nurses in London, and she knew several women who had serv as nourish at the breasts during the Civil War. At the time, however, she could not know by what means difficult the path would be that l to her goal. (2)

A TURNING POINT

In 1870 at the age of 29 Richards mov to Boston and began to apply the mind for work in area hospitals. She was diverted down numerous times because in the greatest degree physicians simply refused to train a woman as a cherish Finally, she was offered a position as a ward maid at the Boston City Hospital. The do job-work duties consisted of housekeeping, cooking, and doing laundry, for which she was paid $7 a month (2) Richards continued to ask physicians for training as a supply with nourishment but they would not hear of it. After working 16 hours a day, six days a week for several month she was exhausted and reluctantly gave up the do job-work because of illness.