Containing Trauma Nursing Work in the First World War

by Hallett, Christine E.

• ISBN13: 9780719079580
• ISBN10: 0719079586
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-01
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

Who were the military nurses of the Great War, and what did they really do? In this lucid and cogently-argued book, Christine Hallett explores the nature of the practices developed by nurses and their volunteer-assistants during the First World War. She argues that nurses found meaning in their complex and stressful work by identifying it as a process of ‘containing trauma’. Beginning with a discussion of the current literature on both the social and cultural position of nurses at the outbreak of the war, and on their importance to the war effort, the book explores a range of nursing scenarios and practices, examining the physical, emotional and spiritual care these women offered to their patients. Broad in its scope and detailed in its research, the book analyses the work of nurses from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America. It draws on highly personal writings: letters and diaries drawn from Archives and libraries throughout the world. This wide-ranging book explores a range of treatment scenarios, from the Western and Eastern Fronts to the Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and India. It considers both the efforts of nurses to provide physical, emotional and moral containment to their patients, and the work they did to maintain their own physical and emotional integrity.

Author Biography

Christine Hallett is Reader in Nursing History at the University of Manchester, and Director of the UK Centre for the History of Nursing and Midwifery.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
List of abbreviations	p. xviii
Introduction: ‘Containing Trauma’: First World War nurses' personal writings	p. 1
Nursing the modern world	p. 1
The first industrial war	p. 3
War nursing	p. 6
Women's writings on the First World War	p. 9
Nurses' personal writings	p. 10
Journey through care	p. 15
Containing physical trauma on the Western Front	p. 27
Introduction	p. 27
Controlling shock and containing life in the aftermath of injury	p. 28
Holding body and soul together: haemorrhage and its control	p. 35
Protecting and healing the physical wound	p. 39
Handling pus and gore: the prevention and containment of sepsis	p. 49
Controlling the traumatic effects of toxic gas	p. 59
Containing the process of dying	p. 64
Conclusion: ‘the most beautiful place in the world’	p. 68
Relief and restoration: rebuilding the physical self	p. 84
Introduction	p. 84
Preserving the body from environmental harm and infection	p. 85
Using trauma to relieve trauma: surgery and its consequences	p. 92
Symptom control: handling pain, restoring comfort	p. 101
Containing energy and restoring life	p. 106
Containing and rehabilitating the physical body	p. 114
Conclusion: the balance of life and health	p. 118
Nursing in ‘far flung places’	p. 127
Introduction	p. 127
Containing injury and disease in hostile zones	p. 127
Sustaining life close to the battle lines	p. 134
Healing wounds in a world of extremes	p. 138
Containing and eradicating infectious diseases	p. 140
Conclusion: heat, cold, dust, mud and flies	p. 148
Emotional containment	p. 155
Introduction	p. 155
Protecting the psyche: being with the suffering	p. 159
Containing the horrors of war: witnessing and restoring	p. 166
Composing damaged minds: shell shock and its containment	p. 169
Containing the consequences of trauma: protecting damaged and undamaged minds	p. 173
Representing home and normality	p. 177
Spiritual containment	p. 182
Conclusion: ‘those blissful hours after a hell-ish time’	p. 185
Self-containment	p. 194
Introduction	p. 194
The physical and emotional presence of the nurse	p. 194
Nursing training and nursing skills	p. 198
The emotional and moral condition of the nurse	p. 201
What had to be contained	p. 205
When the self could not be contained	p. 214
Conclusion: the First World War nurse as ‘invincible healer’	p. 217
Conclusion: First World War nurses as ‘containers of trauma’	p. 224
References	p. 230
Manuscript sources	p. 230
Oral history interviews	p. 235
Published works	p. 236
Internet sources	p. 251
Index	p. 253
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.