Abstract

ARREDONDO-GONZALEZ, Claudia Patricia; DE LA CUESTA-BENJUMEA, Carmen  and  AVILA-OLIVARES, José Antonio. A World in Transition: Objects Used for Care in Spain between 1855 and 1955. Aquichan [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.3, pp.426-439. ISSN 1657-5997.  https://doi.org/10.5294/aqui.2015.15.3.10.

Objective: This research was designed to describe the objects used in the world of nursing care in Spain between 1855 and 1955. Method: It is a historical study conducted with qualitative research methods. The sources of information were training manuals for professional nurses. Results: The context, the settings and those involved in nursing care are presented concurrently in the manuals that were reviewed. The patient's room, with its furniture and physical and environmental conditions, was the primary stage for nursing care. This setting, together with the objects used in it for therapeutic purposes, comprised the material world for nursing care. With respect to their use, the objects in that material world had four properties: 1) reusable, if used more than once; 2) multi-purpose, when they had different practical uses; 3) substitutable, when others could be used in their place, and 4) imported objects or those brought from other contexts and incorporated into the scenario of care. Discussion and Conclusions: The material world of care in Spain during the period in question was in a context of health-illness transition from the miasmatic theory to the germ theory, from general care to specialized care, and from the presence of different professionals dedicated to care to their unification. It was a broad, technological and heterogeneous context. The properties of these objects enriched this material world and facilitated the complex and creative work of those who provided care and whose tools are described in the manuals as simple and unrefined.

Keywords : History of nursing; nursing care; technology; qualitative research.

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