La relation entre sœurs et malades dans les hôpitaux parisiens au XIXe siècle, une relation de soin ?

Administration registers and rare writings from patients, doctors, or studies allow us to grasp the everyday relationship between nuns and the sick in Parisian hospitals in the 19th century. The nuns’ roles encompass both direct care for the sick, and also discipline and surveillance over them and the staff. These functions were encouraged by the hospital administration at least until the 1860s. The nuns’ gestures of care ranged from distributing food and drinks to bandaging wounds. They also tended to patients’ hygiene and cleanliness. By the end of the century, the secularization of Parisian hospitals delegitimized the nuns’ roles. At the same time, the nuns faced criticism mainly from doctors such as Bourneville and Anna Hamilton. The replacement of nuns by specialized staff such as nurses and surveillance employees attests to the diverse roles the nuns had played in hospitals while caring for the sick.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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