["Practical tuberculosis care outside the hospital stands and falls with the tuberculosis nurse". Challenges in out-patient care, using the example of tuberculosis nurses in the first third of the 20th century].

Abstract

Once it had become apparent that tuberculosis sanatoriums were unable to stop this widespread disease, out-patient tuberculosis clinics were established for patients and their relatives in the German Reich. These clinics, which started in the late nineteenth century, employed physicians and tuberculosis nurses. The nurses were generally community or parish nurses, specialized carers not being trained until later. On the one hand, their tasks included the work at these clinics, where they assisted the physician, admitted patients and carried out x-rays and lab tests. On the other hand--and this was their main task--they visited the sick and their families at home, informed them about tuberculosis, instructed them on questions of hygiene and the appropriate behaviour and made sure these instructions were adhered to. If they were able to offer material help as well, they were received more willingly--and they could only make their visits with a patient's consent. Due to the lack of tuberculosis medicines, the work of the tuberculosis nurses was a mainstay in the fight against this highly infectious disease. They often had to overcome the resistance of general practitioners and also of some patients and their families. But they loved doing their job because they were appreciated by the tuberculosis doctors, had a relatively high degree of freedom, authority and responsibility as health visitors and achieved visible results through personal commitment.