Ethical issues in practice for nurses and midwives : a historical perspective

Abstract

A historical perspective of nursing will help to enlighten us on the past and relatively recent difficulties and travails faced by this profession over the years. It will certainly hearten us when we look at the considerable gains achieved over the recent past, and in particular, during the last decade. The evolution of nursing in different countries has been extremely uneven. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, the nursing profession started gaining identity, respect and status after the revolution brought about by Florence Nightingale in the middle of the nineteenth century, and was further enhanced and strengthened during the first half of the twentieth century. However, in the case of lay nurses, Malta was lagging well behind, for a number of reasons.