History of Nursing Homes Essay Example

A Brief History of the Nursing Home Today, there are approximately 16,100 nursing homes in the U.S. with approximately 1.5 million residents (www.cdc.gov). However historically, the sick, disabled, and aged were cared for at home by family members. Changes in technology and social changes have created a shift in how we care for our elderly and disabled, and there is evolution in geriatric care that continues today (Morris, 1995). Nurses have had a huge role in revolutionizing the care for our elderly and for creating what is the modern nursing home. Caring for the old age, or geriatric nursing, is often not viewed as being as prestigious as other specialties in nursing. Despite the growing elderly population and the fact that 46% of all Registered Nurses will be providing direct care to the elderly, the majority of nursing students still do not receive any specialized content in geriatric nursing (Ebersole & Touhy, 2006). Later on, we will discuss the development of geriatric nursing as a specialty and as it relates to the history of long-term care. In the sixteenth century, we began to see institutions developed to care for a variety of people in need. This did not just include the elderly or disabled, but any dependent poor, sick, orphaned children, widows, insane, and even minor criminals. These institutions could be considered a predecessor to the nursing homes that eventually followed (Morris, 1995). Poor laws in Europe gave rise to these institutions referred to as workhouses, almshouses, or poorhouses. They provided very minimal nursing care, and the care was often provided by “pauper nurses” who were not trained and usually inmates themselves, often alcoholics. Agnes Jones, a Nightingale trained nurse visited a Liverpool Infirmary in 1864 and reported “deplorable” conditions. She was forced to dismiss 35 pauper nurses for drunkenness and stated that bed clothes had not been washed for months (Ebersole & Touhy, 2006). These