Short Report: The Education of Nurses in the German Democratic Republic (1949–90)

Abstract

This report1 deals with the development of nurses' and children's nurses' education in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1949 through 1990. Academic education and job training represent the foundation of a profession. But which characteristics of the education of nurses in the GDR have been identified? Did some of these elements reveal potential that could have been transferred into the common German education system for nurses? During the process of change of the social system of the GDR in 1990, the education system of West Germany was carried over into the eastern part of the unified Germany. The chance of improving the common German system of nurses' education by making use of the advantages of both systems of nurses' education was not taken. This is the starting point of the present which deals with the structure, function, and practice of nurses' education in the GDR. Differences between Nurses' Education in State-Run and Church-Based Institutions After World War II, the GDR was established in the territory occupied by the Soviets in 1949 and the social system was oriented toward socialism. During the four subsequent decades, the laws concerning nurses' education were changed three times (1950/51, 1960/61, and 1974). In the 1950s, the education system was strongly influenced by the Soviet Union, which caused the integration of nurses' education into the state-run, vocational school system, including a two-year training program as basic training. This training program included a specialization in the fields of general nursing, the nursing of children or babies, and nursing for mental health, and a oneyear middle or higher training period followed. In preparation for a law on the general socialist education system of the GDR in 1965, the education of nurses was transferred into the system of education of skilled workers in 1961. The nurses' training program started with 16-year-old students and lasted three years. In 1974, nurses' education in state-run institutions was placed in the vocational school system as a polytechnic study, a term that indicated a medically oriented training for nurses. The changes in nurses' education aimed for the improvement of nurses' skills, acknowledgement by society, and closer identification with the socialist society and socialism. Relations between the church and the political system of the GDR were very difficult because the church did not fit into the atheistic and socialistoriented worldview of the period after the war. After 1974, denominational institutions were not allowed by the state to offer any training programs for nurses on their own. Only in cooperation with state-run institutions and under state control were denominational institutions able to run the threeyear training program for nurses. In the case of the denominational institutions, a special one-year internship in nursing was necessary. Thus, the education of nurses took four years altogether, instead of three years at staterun institutions. Influence of the Political Ideology of the GDR on the Education of Nurses Nursing was not considered as an independent scientific discipline subordinate to the medical discipline but as a part of it. …