Nursing History for Contemporary Role Development

Many nursing scholars from around the world have demonstrated the need to find ways to bring historical elements into nursing curricula. This book addresses this need by summarizing existing histories and showcasing the work of emerging nursing history scholars. It uses historical case studies that relate to specific issues in the development of the profession. The book is divided into four sections, and the chapters are organized chronologically. Section I explores issues concerning diversity and vulnerable populations by focusing on health disparities among minority community, the role of public health nurse in primary health care, and the need for school nurses in rural areas. In Section II, the focus is on socio-political issues raised with a world embroiled in war by describing the work of British nursing sisters during World War II, the conflicts between nursing ethics and the state edicts and the so-called “euthanasia” programs, the importance of mental health nursing after the war, and the efforts to prepare faculty to teach in the newly created associate degree in nursing (ADN) programs in the late 1950s. In Section IV, the book examines the volatile years of the Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation movements, by addressing the role of nursing to the very vulnerable population of critically ill neonates, explores the idea of activism as patient advocacy and demonstrates how nurses have been consistently involved in the domain of women’s health.