Povijest hrvatskog sestrinstva.

In Croatia, we note no significant efforts in the systematic study of the nursing history. To this day nursing contribution has only been systematically processed for the period between the two World wars.1 The work of nurses is in historiography relatively poorly treated, despite that it is the key to understanding the social and medical concepts, but also the general public health and social system of the interwar era.2,3 The study of the contribution of religious communities was neglected until 1990s, which has its cause in the reluctance of the former political system to study activities within the Church. Croatian Nurses Association, which was according to available data established in 1927 represents the backbone of the nursing professionalization and is reflected in the activities that were directed towards the publishing of professional journals, efforts to develop education at the university level, establishment of nursing unions, chambers and many other activities. The professionalization of nursing in Croatia follows the trends of developed countries with a certain time-delay due to the specific historical, social and economic conditions. Croatian nursing is just on the threshold of the hundred years since the founding of its first nursing school in Zagreb that opened in January of 1921. Since the founding of the school nurses had a distinctive uniform and a corresponding pin which differentiated them from the other personnel. In the wake of the aforementioned needs Croatian Nurses Association has founded in 2013 the Association for the History of Nursing. Accumulated historical data concerning the professionalization of nursing in Croatia will be shown during the exhibit. Two posters depict activities of Croatian Nursing Association since its founding to this day. Other two posters focus on the changes of the nursing uniform and show nursing pins that were awarded after graduation or as awards. The last poster is dedicated to Homeland War (1991-1995) and the role that nurses played in wartime healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]