Abstract
ABSTRACT: This qualitative study explores how Catholicism influenced nursing in Catholic hospitals and how nurses met the religious needs of Catholic patients in the 1950s and early 1960s. Six nurses were interviewed who graduated from Catholic schools of nursing between 1952 and 1965 and worked in Catholic hospitals. Results indicate that nursing care was inexorably entwined with meeting the religious needs of Catholic patients. Religious practices were predictable and largely linked to the Holy Sacraments.