Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module you should be able to:
• Outline major social changes occurring in Ireland the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the systems of organised healthcare that arose from these changes
• Describe and compare the systems of medical care provided by the state and by charitable bodies
• Discuss how developments in scientific knowledge led to improvements in public health, medical treatments and hospital care and the emergence of modern healthcare professionals
• Discuss the development of Irish health services in the period after Irish independence, with reference to the control of infectious diseases and the provision of hospital and community health services
Indicative Module Content:
Social changes in the early modern period
Hospital care in the early nineteenth century
Christian charity and charity hospitals
Workhouses and workhouse infirmaries
The Great Famine
Theories of infection and contagion: the miasma and germ theory
Public health in the nineteenth century: Urban health and sanitary reform
Health systems in military conflicts: The Crimean War and the Great War
'Medical men and lady nurses': New health professions
‘Very delicate and crippled with rickets’: Cripples and orphans
‘The blighted flower’: Intellectual disability
'Older folk': services and care provision for older people
'Great control': Treatments in mental health care in the twentieth century
‘In the company of those similarly afflicted’: Tuberculosis and the sanatorium
‘The growing menace’: The rise of hospital-acquired infections
Module evaluation and exam briefing