Nursing Knowledge

Abstract

This chapter contextualises the limitations of venereological study among nurses within a wider framework of professionalism and knowledge circulation. Nurses at some training schools received specific (if not specialised) instruction, while others were left almost ignorant of the symptoms of, and treatments for, venereal diseases. These inconsistencies and gaps in the practical and theoretical knowledge circulated among nurses were indicative of more than just prudishness. They were also part of a wider context of inadequate medical training and the division of knowledge according to professional hierarchies. This chapter demonstrates how nurses’ knowledge of venereal diseases was circumscribed professionally and morally, according to what pieces of information doctors deemed suitable for consumption by probationers and nurses. Some knowledge was vital, but too much was detrimental to the health of patients, the hierarchical structure of patient care and the professional territory of doctors.