The Geographical Origins of Geographical Thinking on Health Care Work

This chapter explores how geographical ideas have been central to thinking and acting in caring practice over many centuries in many places. This includes in forms of caring in prehistoric times; in the earliest origins of ancient Chinese and Indian medicine; in the health ideas of ancient Greek writers; in medicine in the age of European exploration; in the nineteenth century origins of public health practice; in the work of Florence Nightingale, and in mid-twentieth century nursing theory. The chapter then explores how these historical strands have reached fruition in the current era with contemporary practice and in research concepts such as ‘work environment’, ‘clinical environment’, ‘environmental health’, ‘lifeworlds’ and in broader movements such as environmentalism. The chapter sets the scene historically for the ones that follow it in the book.