164: Nursing Through the Ages, Part 1: The Dark Origins of Nursing

Before “nurse” meant respect, it meant desperation. In this opening chapter of our three-part series, host Shane Waters drags us into the overcrowded 19th-century wards where poverty, prejudice, and cholera reigned. Discover why hospitals were once “death houses,” how nurses faced infection rates four times higher than other women, and what drove unlikely heroines like Mary Seacole and Clara Barton to defy stigma and save lives. 

What You’ll Learn

• How religious charity turned into secular hospitals—yet conditions grew worse before they got better
• Why London’s population boom (1801–1841) poured fuel on deadly outbreaks
• The grim statistic that early nurses were four times more likely to die from contagious disease than their peers
• The unsung trailblazers who paved the way for Florence Nightingale—long before the famous lamp appeared

Enjoying Hometown History?

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3. Share this episode with a friend who thinks hospitals have always been sanitary—let’s surprise them together!

Every hometown has a story; sometimes it starts in the shadows of a crowded ward.

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