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Nursing History Review 19 (2011): 179–182. A Publication of the American Association for the History
of Nursing. Copyright © 2011 Springer Publishing Company.
DOI: 10.1891/1062–8061.19.179
e History of Nursing in Turkey
F T
Hacettepe University
e traditional roots of modern nursing in Turkey date back to the eff orts of
Florence Nightingale, who cared for wounded English and Turkish soldiers in
Selimiye Barracks in Istanbul during the Crimean War (1854 – 1856).
1 Until
then, care of the wounded and sick was the responsibility of informally trained
women. After the Crimean War, eleven nurses came to Turkey from Germany
with Nightingale’s care principles in mind.
2
e necessity for trained nurses in Turkey reached its peak, however, during
the Balkan War (1912 – 1913) and World War I (1914 – 1918), which brought
large numbers of wounded and sick soldiers and refugees to hospitals. While
early eff orts in nursing were infl uenced by nurses from Western Europe, it was
a local Turkish physician, Besim Ömer Akalın Pasha, who fi rst emphasized the
need for special training in nursing education in Turkey.
3 With his eff orts, the
fi rst formal six-month nursing education program started in 1911. In 1920,
the American Bristol Health School began a two-and-a-half-year nursing edu-
cation program to train nurses for the American Hospital, followed in 1925
with the two-year Society of Red Crescent Nursing School, established through
the eff orts of the famed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic
of Turkey. is school became a four-year program in 1958.
4 Kızılay Nursing
School also began a nursing program in 1925 requiring twenty-seven months
of study, and it set certain conditions for acceptance: being literate, in good
physical condition, and morally educated. After 1946, this institution became
the key school that sent graduates to other nursing schools as educators and
administrators.
5
Other nursing schools opened in the 1940s and 1950s, but not bacca-
laureate and post baccalaureate programs. e fi rst bachelor-degree program
opened in 1955, a master in nursing in 1968,
6 and the fi rst nursing doctorate
program in 1972 at Hacettepe University School of Nursing (HUSN).
7 Even
though there are currently eighty-one schools of health with departments of
nursing, each needs faculty who are well trained in the health professions. By
2006, there were only six universities that off ered doctoral degrees in nursing.
180 F T
Hence, graduates of the Haceteppe University program have provided the
faculty needed to raise the qualifi cations of understaff ed and underfunded
universities in Turkey.
e professionalization of nursing in Turkey was enhanced in 1933
when the Turkish Nurses Association (TNA) was established. It became an
active member of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in 1949; and
currently, with fi fteen branch offi ces, the association has its own journal for
2,785 members nationwide.
8 In addition to the TNA, there are twenty-
two nursing associations for specifi c specialties. e TNA has periodically
sponsored a journal since 1959.
Despite its accomplishments in education and professional organizations,
nursing in Turkey is still primarily a fi eld for women; this leads to nurses’
being neglected by decision makers at work.
9 Environments are entrenched in
a steep hierarchy, and societal factors such as the nursing shortage have also
contributed to the muting of nurses’ voices, especially in the decision-making
arena that drives the health care market and policy.
Nursing functions and roles are defi ned by law as well as other regula-
tions and directives. e Nursing Law of 1954 cited very restricted roles, with
nurses working primarily to assist other professionals. As such, it was not in
accordance with twenty-fi rst-century hospital and nursing practice realities.
Nurses receive insuffi cient and inappropriate education related to the services
they are supposed to give. Insuffi cient education along with the lack of legisla-
tion appropriate to changing conditions have created problems concerning the
protection of nurses’ rights, which lead to their neglect by decision makers.
10
In addition, there are few accepted standards for nursing services, and few
continuing education and in-service training programs existed until 1993.
11
To correct these defi ciencies, TNA nurses worked for more than fi fteen years
to update nursing laws, and their eff orts were successful with the approval of
a new law in April 2007. Although it will take fi ve years for implementation,
these new changes have given nurses many opportunities to acquire expertise,
earn a training certifi cate, and obtain more men into nursing, along with the
professional articulation of nursing roles and standardized nursing education
at the university level.
Political forces have also aff ected the nursing profession in Turkey. To
meet European Union requirements, nurses are trying to change the total
number of hours of nursing education, including theory and clinical practice.
ey recently established a system of academic credits such as the European
Credits Transfer System in order to promote student and educator mobility.
us nurses and nurse educators are revising nursing practice and curricula to
meet the ever-changing needs of society.
History of Nursing in Turkey 181
In summary, advances in technology, rising acuity of clients, and early
discharge of clients from health care institutions require nurses to have up-to-
date knowledge of nursing skills. Contradicting this is the low social position
of women in medical facilities and Turkish society in general. Despite their
gains, nurses are still frequently perceived as physicians’ assistants rather than
autonomous professionals in their own right. Nursing is commonly perceived
as “lowly women’s” work, thus undermining nurses’ abilities to bring change.
12
With the 2007 change in nursing law allowing more men into schools of
nursing, this could change. Yet the nursing shortage remains.
F T
Associate Professor
Vice President of Nursing Department
Hacettepe University
Faculty of Health Science
Nursing Department
06100, Ankara, Turkey
Notes
1. N. Eren and G. Uyer, Saglik Meslek Tarihi ve Ahlaki [History and Deontology of
Health Professionals], 4th ed. (Ankara: Hatiboglu Yayinevi, 1991); and S. Erhan, Hemsire-
lik Tarihi [History of Nursing] (Istanbul: Divan Matbaacilik Tesisleri, 1978).
2. ere is a Florence Nightingale museum in Istanbul, Turkey. F. Ulusoy, “Nursing
Education History in Turkey,” Cumhuriyet University Journal of School of Nursing 2, no. 1
(1998):1 – 8; Ş. Özaydın, “Start of Nursing in Turkey and Samples from its Development
in the Last irty Years,” T Klin J Med Ethics , Law and History 10 (2002):258 – 62; and
Z. Özaydın, “Upper Social Strata Women in Nursing in Turkey,” Nursing History Review
14 (2006): 161 – 74.
3. Ulusoy, “Nursing Education History.”
4. Ulusoy, “Nursing Education History,” and L. Birol, Red Crescent Nurses Serving
to Human (Ankara; Doğuş Publishing, 1975).
5. K. Kukulu, “Nursing in Turkey,” Nurse Educator 30, no. 3 (2005):101 – 103.
6. F. Erdil and N. Bayraktar, “Hacettepe Üniversitesinde Hemşirelikte Lisans Üstü
Eğitimin Gelişimi,” in 1st International and 5th National Nursing Education Congress Book
(Nevşehir, Turkey, 2001), 199 – 202.
7. B. Yurugen, Turkiye’de Hemsirelik ve Hemsirelik Egitimi Tarihi [Nursing and
History of Nursing Education in Turkey] (Gaziantep, Turkey: Yuksek Ogretim Kurumu,
2005); Turkish Council of Higher Education, “Turkey Health Manpower Situation Report,
2007,” Turkish Council of Higher Education, http://www.yok.gov.tr; and e Council of
182 F T
Higher Education of the Republic of Turkey, “Homepage,” http://www.hemsirelersitesi.
com/hemsitar.htm.
8. History of Turkish Nurses Association, “History,” http://www.turkhemsire
lerdernegi.org.tr/?page=page&cmd=show&lid=0&pid=10.
9. Kukulu, “Nursing in Turkey.”
10. Ibid.
11. S. Aksayan and G. Cimete, “Nursing Education and Practice in Turkey,” Journal
of Nursing Scholarship 32, no. 2 (2000): 211–12.
12. Kukulu, “Nursing in Turkey.”
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