Historical continuities and constraints in the professionalization of nursing

The support of medicine and the state may be crucial to nursing's current professional aspirations for legitimation and implementation of nursing reforms and for new roles for nurses in health care. As such, medicine and the state are in the invidious position of influencing nursing's occupational future. This situation is not new. An historical analysis of the establishment of nursing at Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia, at the end of the nineteenth century reveals that the State Government of NSW and the medical profession supported nursing's occupational development, yet set the framework within which this could occur. For instance, the state provided patronage to nursing through recommendations of the 1873 Royal Commission and because it financially backed Prince Alfred Hospital, while the medical profession defined nursing knowledge and practice through its control of the nursing curriculum. Membership of the hospital board provided both medicine and the state with powerful positions over hospital policies that affected nursing. While nursing became established as a distinct occupation for women with the aid of State and medical support, its subordinate position in health care was, and continues to be, constrained by these traditional supporters. This relationship between nursing, medicine and the state has implications for nursing's current professionalization strategies and aspirations.