Nursing as Part of Care for the Poor in Slovak Villages in the First Half of the 20th Century

Caring (opatrovateľstvo) and nursing (ošetrovateľstvo) have evolved in our country as two distinct types of personal services, with a historical relationship that has developed through processes of mutual separation and convergence. The aim is to demonstrate a historically validated method of integrated caring and nursing at a local level. By analyzing valid legal regulations, it is possible to map the real relationship between 1918 and 1938 in present-day Slovakia within the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. In addition to the nursing provided by the public health system nurses, municipalities were obliged to provide care for people experiencing poverty (chudobníctvo) to persons with a domicile right in their municipalities. This care included not only social care but also healthcare, and thus, according to the specific needs of the recipient, social and/or healthcare was provided. Joint nursing and caring, which has already proven its worth in the inter-war period at the municipal level in the context of care for the poor, appears to be the most appropriate approach to the proposed concept of long-term care for older people and other recipients.