The Practice of Medicine was Transformed during the Civil War - Report Example

The Practice of Medicine was Transformed during the Civil War of the of the The Practice of Medicine was Transformedduring the Civil War The American Civil war provided umber opportunities to many physicians, scientists, and civilians to come up as innovators who put in much effort to transform medicine into an advanced profession. Hospitals now have well-organized ambulances and transportation services for the health security of people. The war also facilitated women to prove themselves as helpers in the arena of cleanliness and provision of food1. This support and assistance provided new roles for women as nurses. Improvement in surgery in the shape of amputation developed new grounds for medical field. People started to have better understanding of medicine and its functionalities to help people in need. The rate of survivors with the support of surgery assured people of the success of medicine2. Not only armed persons, but also civilians got benefitted based on the usage of newly introduced services. Initially, most of the remedial measures were taken at a preliminary steps starting from homely developed medicines with the usage of natural supplies such as herbs. However, with the increasing needs of medicine and medical care required during the Civil War, the profession of medicine got developed increasingly leading to the development of pharmaceutical manufacturing3. America got a chance to be categorized as a developed country with improved scientific and healthcare services because of therapeutic assistance given to the soldiers and civilians by the civilian volunteers of war along with scientists and physicians. The United States of America entered in a war in the year 1861. Mr. Abraham Lincoln the former President of the USA deployed the services of seventy five thousand Para military forces to serve for a shorter period of time to resolve the conflict. The war quickly turned to be the most horrible war in the American history. It lasted in nearly about four and half years, which took the lives of six hundred thousand people4. The Civil War had changed the course of American life. The medical profession as a whole got manifold better because of the Civil War in America. Professional medicine has seen new heights in terms of needs of the soldiers and the personnel5. Majority of them who died in the civil war were precariously ruined at the hands of disease whereas the leftover could not bear the brunt of injuries. Injury played havoc with the soldiers of depleting ranks6. The medical field and the services offered in the lieu of health and safety were quite avoidable. No one denies the fact that the medicines during the period in question have seen remarkable transformations. The Civil War produced advanced diagnostic gadgets. Of course, “Lister’s Germ Theory” radically changed the way of treatment against the disease and injury7. The prevailing opinion in the era of pre-war years held that professional medicine was a poorly performed field and that the sick had no choice, but to approach to the hospital for treatment on their own mostly. Due to lack of modern instruments at that time and the required knowledge of the microbes that caused a number of the diseases, people suffered extensively8. However, most of the Civil War doctors played key roles that could be the cause of major steps to look forward in many segments ahead. In view of the significant changes in the field of medicines, it is utmost important that the hospital must have the state of the art technology to maintain the hospital and to put in efforts to make pharmaceutical industry grow9. At the start of war, medicine as a science and profession was in many ways not up to the desired level. Good medical practices frustrated the very efforts to clean up dirty camps. Inadequate hospital facilities left the sizeable soldiers unattended for so many days. Sometimes, it was observed that they were lying in the battlefield without any care till the medical assistance arrived10. Churches, hotels, warehouses, shops, private homes, all were turned to temporary hospitals to take care of the patients11. Initially first aid was provided in tents, though the qualities of makeshift hospitals were questionable. The doctors in those hospitals were quite incompetent to handle the awkward situations12. Military bureaucrats opposed with tooth and nails to the creation of general hospitals13. They believed that soldiers who were dispatched to these hospitals would never be able to turn back to join battlefield. Soon it was realized that makeshift hospitals would not deliver the services as expected. The first reform in the hospital system came in the year 186114. The most important reforms were the introduction of the transportation system for the benefits of the soldiers and the civilians equally15. Large hospitals were built in major cities. The mentioned hospitals comprised of thousands of beds in rooms, where air could circulate to treat the patients of certain diseases under one roof. This had not permitted people from getting infectious diseases. One can determine the competence of the hospitals, which treated more than a million patients having less than ten percent death rate16. Only the surgeon could identify the wound that was considered lethal, which could lead to the death of a soldier or a civilian residing in the war zones17. Critical injuries, in view of the surgeons opinion included penetrating wounds. The treatable wounds were bullet riddled wounds and less traumatic injuries. Those treatable wounds were treated with first aid at small field and hospitals. The injured who had critical situation or injuries were later on transferred to major hospital18. Injured were treated and sent back to their regiment, where they could expect facilities of nursing of other soldiers to go back and fight against the enemy forces. The severely injured patients were transported to better equipped hospitals for better medical assistance. The transportation system in the hospital, perhaps the most admired system in the history of medicine19. The original ambulance service was introduced in the year 1859, comprised of a buggy driven by the horses having two wheels since there are areas, which lacked the facilities of cemented roads. Hence, the buggy services were the most suitable option to be used to transfer the patient to the hospital and to regiments or other locations after treatment20. Keeping in mind the needs of the hour in the year 1862, the need for a military ambulance corps with trained personnel was felt21. The reason for feeling the need of a military ambulance was that the ambulances that were possessed on personal basis and which had the medical facilities were unable to remain functional with the fighting troops. An ambulance having trained crops along with other medical facilities dealing with restoring patients’ health was essentially required to provide assistive measures to the patients in order to reduce their problems22. The available transport provided relaxed transportation to the injured personnel by taking them to the field hospitals, from which, the patients were sent to general hospitals for better treatment. The introduction of ambulance system in the medical field became one of the most modern developments in the world after commencement of the Civil War. European armies followed the footsteps of their counterpart in their war time23. It would not be out of place to mention that the American Civil War Ambulance was conferred as a grand prize for their meritorious services. The ambulance and the field hospital system are benefitting greatly for the people of the remaining world even today24. More innovations by the Americans in the field of medical transportation system were the inclusion of hospital train and the hospital boat. The innovated railroad system was very crucial as in transferring the patients, much care and comfort were given importance in order to enable the patients to reach safely to specific hospitals25. Hospital car service composed of thirty beds providing yeoman services to the patients. During the transportation of a patient, nurses attended the patients with the support of a storage of required medical equipments and treating medicines26. The trains took patients to hospitals. Ships were also employed for sending patients to specific hospitals for better treatment and care with immediate needs. The floating hospitals played a vital role in the efficient network and treatment of wounded soldiers. Like other transportation services, hospital ships were improved side by side, as the war evolved27. However, their control was taken by the military command until the war ended. Prior to the year of 1865, hospitals were maintained by volunteers. The small ships having small number of doctors seldom provided such services as identified hereinabove. The women who volunteered hailed from local wealthy families and came forward to discharge medically and surgery related obligations28. There were many other ways where women had contributed a lot in the war. The ruler of that time was in favor of confining women at home. More than three thousand and two hundred women served in the battlefield as paid nurses in both Union and Confederate armies and the remaining hundreds of people served as volunteers in the hospitals or in the battlefields as service providers29. It is utmost important to mention the name of Sanitary Commission, which was managed primarily by women, who had done remarkable services during the wartime30. Keeping in view the meritorious services rendered by the said commission during the Crimean War, the institution was appreciated for its services related to reducing the wretchedness and sufferings of war; hence, it was recommended as a strong institution working for the needy. In the initial phase, the organization was empowered to make recommendations to the government’s officials with regard to inspection of recruits and enlisted skilled men and women in their respective fields, i.e. the hygienic condition of the voluntary workforce; preserving and restoring the health, general comfort, provide cooks, nurses and hospitals etc31. The commission became a dominant factor with respect to directly providing supplies and care through their trained ward boys and nurses32. The Commission was so powerful that it influenced the appointment of military surgeons and the administration of medical bureau, allowing younger and the progressive minds to be given responsible positions that could push the boundaries of medicine concerning new treatments, procedure and techniques33. The aforesaid Commission improved the quality of medical care provided to Civil War soldiers; later on, it was transformed into public health services after the war. Most changes in the policies affected the cleanliness of camps and hospitals in order to eliminate infectious diseases. The female cooks were responsible to cook diets for the troops, which resulted in decreasing the ratio of death, which travelled from illness to death and injury34. At the war’s end, mortality in the army declined to a considerable extent. The Commission was instrumental in promoting the hospital reforms to improve health care of the wounded. It was also responsible for hiring, staffing, and maintaining the Union’s hospital ships, and the design of hospital train cars35. The services of unpaid group were enormous, truly remarkable and appreciable for all times36. The mentioned commission also inspired the modern day American Red Cross, which was founded by none other than a pioneering female nurse named Clara Barton, who had strong relation with the Civil War37. The nursing profession also grew up dating back to the Civil War. Prior to the said set up, family members were engaged to perform nursing job at home or at battlefield38. Inspired by the yeoman services of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War under the command of Dorothea Dix, several groups of women were assembled who were given professional nursing training to improve conditions of the local hospitals. Under the professional guidance of Dix alone, more than three thousand women were trained and subsequently allowed to serve as paid nurses39. Their presence in the hospitals was gradually accepted, surgeons and patients alike took notice of their contributions, and female nurses faced challenges working side by side with male surgeons during the war40. Hannah Ropes reported in her diary that nurses and surgeons addressed the problems from different angles, the surgeon had taken it as objective scientific work while the nurse took it with compassion and healing perspective41. The nature of work for the women in the south was quite different. Although their jobs were less structured than those of their Northern counterparts, Southern women filled many vital supporting medical roles. The war provided an opportunity to the enterprising surgeons and scientists to revisit existing procedures to restructure them. Most famous were the amputation techniques of organs that were widely practiced at that time42. You may guess it from the number of amputations i.e. around fifty thousand, during the war. Number of people believed that the best way to prevent infection from further aggravating was to maximize a soldier’s chance of recovery43. The process of recovery of the injured patients got better because of the involvement of ambulance services along with the hospital system. All the progress in the field of medicine and patient recovery made the surgeons eligible to attend to their patients without considering the distance, as there were transportation services available; hence, patients were treated more efficiently and faster than before44. For doing surgery of amputation related issues, the doctors of the time usually followed two methodologies that were flap method and circular method45. The flap method can be defined as the usage of skin from any other part of the body to envelop the injured part, however, the circular method can be defined as a method in which, the surgeons left the affected part open after cutting directly all the way through the limb46. According to the surgeons, circular method was much more simple as compared to flap method, as the doctors were able to handle an operation in dim light47. During the war, the surgeons used chainsaw method for dealing with amputation cases because of its efficiency in treating the patient within ten minutes48. Throughout the Civil War, surgeons innovated surgical methods that were used for the restoration of physical and mental health of patients. They worked for treatment of hernias and other problems such as elimination of injuries on the chests and so on49. New techniques were developed by doctors, for example, Dr. Benjamin Howard discovered an innovated method for assisting the chest injuries. However, his discovery was not that much successful during the war50. Pharmacy could not be regarded as a developed field at the initiation of the war. However, it got better with the progression of the war. The workers employed for dealing with pharmaceutical needs were low paid and were not respected according to their profession. In totality, there were six fields of pharmacy until 186151. The physicians who used to work for pharmacy kept their assistants as pharmacists. These pharmacists categorized their profession as quite inferior and low graded. They had a continued belief in the inadequacy of the profession. The profession as a whole suffered before and during the war, but the workers and physicians worked for the betterment of masses and showed their contribution as vital. The armed personnel were in need of good medical assistance52. The war gave chance to medical practitioners to raise their voices for the reputation and acknowledgement of their services and profession for the humankind. The workers worked for civil as well as military needs53. The year 1865 saw the development of Germ Theory by Joseph Lister. This theory was related to infections because of bacteria and this theory further facilitated for the development of antiseptic processing54. The scientists and physicians left old times behind by introducing new medicinal procedures and techniques for better treatment of patients and wartime medical practitioners led this development. Improvements in the field of medical science were brought about by the hard work of physicians who worked during the Civil War. These improvements remained stored historically and were later used as catalysts for further medical progress55. The modernized state of the medicine appeared in the Civil War as a result of efforts by physicians, volunteers, medical practitioners and many more who devoted their time and effort towards bringing in improvements in the medicine. The physicians and medical volunteers took the Civil War and the wounded soldiers and civilians as a challenging situation that provided them with a chance to come up with new discoveries. These discoveries as a whole provided future development of the medical profession. 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