“Cups for Colds” the Barber, the Surgeon and the Nurse

A Concept Development of the Village Health Worker

“…Before nursing evolved as a profession, lay community healthcare practitioners were usually educated by physicians or priests (Welsh, 1919). Physicians still teach VHWs in some parts of the world, but nurses increasingly have taken over this role (Clarke, Dick, & Bogg, 2006; Dick, Clarke, van Zyl, & Daniels, 2007).…”

“…Later, monastics and religious clerics were community resources for wound care and herbal medicine, as well as spiritual assistance. This combined role persists in under‐resourced nations to this day (Recio, 1985; Welsh, 1919). A shortage of doctors for the battlefield in the early seventeenth century led to the training of feldshers or barber surgeons to provide basic medical care to military personnel (Pérez & Martinez, 2008).…”

“…A shortage of doctors for the battlefield in the early seventeenth century led to the training of feldshers or barber surgeons to provide basic medical care to military personnel (Pérez & Martinez, 2008). Untrained barbers worldwide have had the necessary tools to perform emergency surgery, and when bloodletting lost favor, they performed cupping, even as recently as 1919 in immigrant areas of New York City (Welsh, 1919).…”