Urinary incontinence, 1850--1906: A historiography

The purpose of this paper is to enable the reader to gain a truer understanding of the treatment of Urinary Incontinence over the past one hundred and fifty-five years. Specifically this work will compare medical and nursing interventions to those of the alternative medicine and lay or popular medicine practices. Grounded in historicism, the study produces a documentary effect allowing the reader to empathize with the healers of the past. The social context of the specific time frame was integrated into the study illuminating the Jacksonian and Progressive eras. In addition, the birth of professional nursing as we know it rose alongside allopathic medicine. This research is relevant to nursing history because it provides context for the work of nursing. Medicine used advancing technology to catapult the profession into a position of power capable of dictating advertising standards and influencing legislation. The significance of this study is its contribution to the paucity of existing knowledge of the history of Urinary Incontinence interventions. The nursing significance will outline the development of the profession as well as outlining nursing interventions and care of the incontinent person. This is the first comparison of the popular treatment with the prescribed treatment of Urinary Incontinence in the illuminated time period.