Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 93-96. (Budapest, 1981)
TANULMÁNYOK - Kapronczay Károly—Szemkeő Endre: A betegápolás szervezése a szabadságharc idején
Intézkedett arról is, hogy a családoknál el nem helyezhető honvédeket az irgalmasok budai kórházába szállítsák át. A betegeket befogadó szegénysorsú családok között •— ápolási díjként — Kossuth pénztárából kétszáz honvéd kéthavi zsoldjának megfelelő összeget osztott szét. A lassan a déli területek felé menekülő tábori kórházak hosszabb ideig sehol sem maradhattak, így a fegyelem is lassan felbomlott, régi sérelmek kerültek előtérbe, egyre több fegyelemsértési ügyben kellett intézkedni. így Szegeden, ahol szép számban jelentkeztek nők ápolási munkára, csak komoly erőfeszítések árán tudott Kossuth Zsuzsanna rendet teremteni, de hasonló problémák jelentkeztek a menekülő pesti kórházban is. Mindezek ellenére a honvéd egészségügyi szolgálat szinte az utolsó napig híven látta el feladatát, amelyben kiemelt szerepet kapott a betegápolás ügye. A magyar szabadságharc betegápolása, az önkéntes ápolónői kar megszervezése, a hadifoglyokkal való humánus törődés történelmi értékű bizonyítékok. A krími háború előtt négy évvel — Florence Nightingale tevékenységét is megelőzve — a magyar önkéntes ápolónői intézmény olyan emberbaráti elveket valósított meg, amelyek később a vöröskeresztes mozgalomban váltak általánossá. Summary The victory of the bourgeois revolution of 15 March 1848 opened the way to attain Hungarian impendence, to establish autonomous Hungary. Besides organizing modern bourgeois administration, the problems of military defense were among the main concerns of the independent government. When organizing the independent Hungarian army, military medicine was to be thought of, too. Its importance is proved by the fact that a generally respected professor of university was charged with the organization of the honvéd medical corps. Headed by G. Stáhly, the health department of the ministry of national defence was soon established with the task of organizing and directing military medicine. Field hospitals were established, taks were defined for field medical officers and their assistants (surgeons, pharmacists, nurses, etc.), members of the army medical corps were appointed, and to supply doctors, military medicine courses were started. These measures were very much necessary since after the attack of the Habsburg army in September 1848 there was more and more need of careful, healing hands, of institutions ensuring paeceful accomodation and recovery of the wounded. Besides providing doctors, establishing hospices, acquiring medicaments and necessary accessories (hospital, equipment, medical instruments, blankets, means of transport, etc.) a staff was needed who would under the control and direction of doctors, care for the wounded and diseased soldiers. The low number of male nurses was insufficient for the needs of the increased number of hospitals and wounded, at the same time all men capable of holding arms were needed at the battle fields. The military direction tried to fill the gap with lightly injured honvéds, medical students, even with captured doctors and nurses of the imperial army. All these measures, however, proved to be insufficient. Soon a social movement was started to take part in the defence of the country. Voluntary associations were founded by women to collect and sew bandages, body linen, linen and sheets for the hospitals. Making good use of the enthousiasm and enterprising spirit of Hungarian women, Zsuzsa Kossuth, sister of revolution leader Lajos Kossuth, with the approval of the military direction organized the Hungarian nursing profession, unique at that time in the world. Upon her appointment as head nurse of the country (23 April 1849), Zsuzsa Kossuth addressed herself to the women in the daily newspapers urging them tojóin the local or the nearest hospital and serve the national cause by nursing the patients according to the instructions of the hospital directory. Many thousands of women volunteered and worked conscientiously. Zsuzsa Kossuth herself, accompanied by a doctor of good organizing abilities, payed a visit to the hospitals working in the most difficult conditions in order to gauge the deficiances and
