Nursing Cares given to the Sufferers from Syphilis in the Hospital del Espíritu Santo of Sevilla (Spain) around the Year 1600. Books and Documents

Abstract

espanolEl presente estudio tiene como objetivo principal conocer el nivel de preparacion de los enfermeros que trabajaron en algunos de los mas importantes hospitales espanoles en torno al ano 1600 en el tratamiento de las enfermedades de transmision sexual, especialmente la sifilis. Para su tratamiento los enfermeros conocian y aplicaban ya en torno al ano 1600 un conjunto de tecnicas complejas y su trabajo se movia bajo unas directrices eticas. Ello podria ser indicador de los inicios de la profesionalizacion de la Enfermeria en Espana, mucho antes de lo que se viene considerando en otros paises, que se situa este proceso en el siglo XIX. Los enfermeros comenzaron ya en este periodo a elevar su nivel de formacion para proporcionar unos cuidados que respondieran a los avances medicos del momento y se puedieran aplicar, al menos en los hospitales espanoles erigidos en las grandes ciudades, como Sevilla y Madrid. EnglishThis study seeks to determine the level of training that nurses working in the most important Spanish hospitals reached towards the year 1600 in the treatments applied to patients with STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), particularly syphilis. The nurses knew and already applied around 1600 a set of complex techniques to care for and heal the sick of syphilis and other STDs. All this demonstrates an increase in the demands of the training of Spanish nurses, who worked under ethical guidelines, and we could assume the beginnings of the professionalization of nursing in such an early age. In 16th century Spain, nurses began to raise their educational level to provide care that could respond to the new knowledge that medicine was discovering as a result of the general scientific development of the time, and that should be applied in the new hospitals that were erected in the main Spanish cities.