The power of care: the Women's Hospital 1884-1914.

The effectiveness of late-nineteenth-century nursing care should not be underestimated. The archive of patient records at Melbourne's Women's Hospital reveals a commitment to patient care that more often than not made the difference between life and death in the recovery from major surgery or post-partum infection. These records suggest the need to reassess the role of medical care in the mortality transition after 1850.