Enduring Issues in American Nursing

Named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2001 by Choice!

Why turn to the past when attempting to build nursing's future?...To make good decisions in planning nursing's future in the context of our complex health care system, nurses must know the history of the actions being considered, the identities and points of view of the major players, and all the stakes that are at risk. These are the lessons of history."
-- from the Introduction

This book presents nursing history in the context of problems and issues that persist to this day. Issues such as professional autonomy, working conditions, relationships with other health professionals, appropriate knowledge for education and licensure, gender, class, and race are traced through the stories told in this volume. Each chapter provides a piece of the puzzle that is nursing. The editors, all noted nurse historians and educators, have carefully made selections from the best that has been published in the nursing and health care literature.

Ellen D. Baer, RN, PhD, FAAN, is the Wallace Gilroy Visiting Professor of Nursing at the University of Miami and Professor Emeritus of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, where she held the Hillman Term Professorship in Nursing and where she remains an Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the History of Nursing.

Patricia D’Antonio, RN, PhD, is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, a Fellow at the Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Associate Editor of Nursing History Review.

Sylvia D. Rinker, RN, PhD, is Associate professor of Nursing at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia. She is Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee of the American Association for the History of Nursing, archivist for the Xi Upsilon Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau at Lynchburg College, and on the Advisory Board for the Center for the History and Culture of Central Virginia.

Joan E. Lynaugh, RN, PhD, FAAN, is Professor Emeritus of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania where she held the History of Nursing and Health Care Term Professorship. Dr. Lynaugh was the Founder and Director, now Associate Director, of the Center for the Study of the History of Nursing and the Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She currently chairs the Board of Trustees of the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia.