‘St. Camillus de Lellis. From being a mercenary soldier to being a reformer of nursing care’. This is the title of the degree thesis in nursing on the Giant of Charity which won the scholarship awarded by the University of Tor Vergata in Rome in cooperation with the Order of the Ministers of the Sick.

The winner is Dr. Antonella Palombo, aged 34, who had already been awarded a similar degree in the United States of America and in 2010 came back to Italy to practise her profession here. Given that her qualification was not recognised in our country she had to recommence her university studies with a three-year degree which she obtained with brilliant results on 12 May last. At the degree examination – as members of the examining committee for the award of the scholarship – there were also present the Camillians Father Paolo Guarise, Father Eugenio Sapori and Brother Carlo Mangione.

The achievement of this degree closely followed that of becoming a mother, given that for just five months Antonella has been the mother of her baby girl, Lea Maria. ‘I  did the final print of my course of studies with my daughter in my arms’, she joked.

‘The idea of this work was born last February’, she told us, ‘when I read the notice about a scholarship for the best thesis on St. Camillus. I confess that I did not know about this saint but, given that I had always been interested in the historiographical aspect of the profession (which in Italy is not highly thought of), I immediately decided to take part. I thus spoke with the director of my degree course and he suggested that I get into contact with those academics who would become my supervisors: Prof. Ercole Vellone and Prof. Julie Fairman who teaches at the PennStateUniversity in Pennsylvania and is an expert on the history of nursing’.

Given her command of English, Antonella immediately decided to write her thesis in two languages (Italian and English). Her work begun with her consulting the internet site of the Order and the printed and other material available on the subject (at the archives of the Camillians as well).

‘To my great amazement’, she observed, ‘I realised that already in the sixteenth century, albeit in a primitive way, St. Camillus had achieved a series of innovations in the nursing profession which historians usually see as having been born two centuries later. And although the birth of the modern nursing profession is traditionally attributed to the ‘Lady of the Lamp’, Florence Nightingale, who lived at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, in fact the pioneer of this profession was without doubt St. Camillus de Lellis’.

To demonstrate this Antonella listed some of the ideas invented by the saint of Abruzzi: a little bell to call nurses to the hospital, scrupulous hygiene in wards, care about the alimentation of the patients, the way in which the beds of sick people were made, and the prototype of the modern stool.

Her thesis is organised into four chapters: the first is on the historical period when the saint worked, the second is on his life, the third is on the history of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick, and the fourth is on the reforms set in motion by St. Camillus.

‘It was not easy to obtain material’, Antonella told us, ‘because, apart from the texts in the Camllian archives, at a secular level there is authentic historiographical hole as regards this figure who should without doubt be appreciated. And not only in Italy but also overseas, as I now hope to do with the help of my American supervisor’.

On the last page of her degree thesis the author thanks ‘amongst others’ ‘the Camillians who gave me an opportunity to know the real pioneer of Italian nursing’. ‘To discover him for me was an authentic lightening strike’, Antonella emphasised.

The newly graduated Antonella, who in America for years was the ward sister of a geriatric department, has already begun to work in a company which provides home care to sick people, and the next academic year she will start a second degree in the nursing and obstetric sciences so as to finish her pathway of studies. Her aim is to explore the figure of St. Camillus de Lellis in her next degree thesis as well, and in particular the reforms that he achieved in nursing.

To Antonella go our congratulations for her prestigious achievement and our best wishes for her future activities.

Download here  the thesis in PDF

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