Abstract

QUEIROS, Paulo Joaquim Pina et al. Nurses in the staff of the Coimbra University Hospitals, 1779-1797: particularities and implications. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2020, vol.serV, n.3, pp.e20027-e20027. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RV20027.

Context: Resulting from the integration of small hospitals, the Coimbra University Hospitals were, at this time, an institution of significant size. At the end of the 18^th century, during the Age of Enlightenment, hospitals were undergoing a process of transition to modernity. Objectives: To describe the staff of the Coimbra University Hospitals in the last decades of the 18th century and analyze the evolution of the existing professions and compare their salaries and positions, while focusing on nurses. Methodology: A historical analysis based on published sources, considering the contexts and long-lasting evolutionary lines while building an interpretative summary. Results: Four professional groups were found and divided into treatment of the body - nurses, physicians, and surgeons; treatment of the soul - chaplains and sexton; support services - assistants, helpers, cooks, laundry maid, washerwoman, despenseiro; and security services - doorkeepers, guards, and tronqueiro. Conclusion: It was possible to observe the presence of nurses during the transition between medieval continuity, with the continuance of bloodletting nurses and cook nurses, and the ascending differentiation of the delivery nurse and the descending differentiation of ward assistants.

Keywords : nursing history; hospitals; public assistance.

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