Women, Nursing, and Baccalaureate Education in 20th Century America

PURPOSE

To analyze the social meaning of the American system of education for nursing practice.

METHODS

Historiographical analysis to compare and contrast the relative educational level of different self-reported groups of American women with that of nurses in the later decades of the 20th century.

FINDINGS

Early 20th century social support for efforts to improve the overall educational level of some nurses planning careers in education, administration, or public health nursing lent credence to the belief in nursing as a vehicle for upward social mobility. This promise of mobility was particularly apparent in the educational backgrounds of African American, Hispanic, and Asian American nurses. However, the late 20th century decreased average educational level of U.S. nurses relative to that of all U.S. women jeopardizes the clinical and social roles of the profession.

CONCLUSIONS

The language of class and community status is needed in addition to that of science, knowledge development, and clinical excellence to increase social and political support for educational initiatives.

Construção do projeto pedagógico: experiência da faculdade de Enfermagem da UERJ

Estudo histórico-social, que tem como objeto a construção do projeto político pedagógico do Curso de Graduação da Faculdade de Enfermagem da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FENF/UERJ), 1992 - 2002. Objetivo: relatar a experiência da construção do Projeto Pedagógico. Está pesquisa foi desenvolvida através da análise dos documentos e dissertações do Acervo do Centro de Memória Dra Nalva Pereira Caldas. Está teoricamente embasada em autores que tratam da temática. A estrutura e o plano curricular do Curso de Graduação foram aprovados pelo Conselho Superior de Ensino e Pesquisa da UERJ em dezembro 2001, através da Deliberação n.º 05/01, encontrando-se em vigência à partir do primeiro semestre de 2002.

Integrating nursing history into the curriculum

Understanding nursing history helps us to comprehend current issues in nursing and anticipate future trends in the profession. Faculty need strategies that will assist them in making history meaningful in the crammed, packed undergraduate and graduate curricula. This article examines how nursing history has been taught in the curriculum since the National League of Nursing Education first introduced a standardized curriculum in 1917 until the present. It explores the teaching strategies used in the past and expands on some of these methods and strategies in order to include them in nursing curricula today.

The role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the inclusion and education of Hispanic nursing students

The increased diversity of the population in the United States and the rapid growth of the Hispanic community have implications for all aspects of American life including healthcare professions. Nursing education and practice have a responsibility and an obligation to educate culturally competent nurses for the healthcare delivery system. This paper discusses Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) role in assisting Hispanic students to receive a nursing education and serve their communities as registered nurses.

Unintended consequences: two critical events from the 1960s and '70s and their legacy for nursing in Ontario

In the late 1960s and early '70s, two key events occurred in Ontario that greatly affected the nursing profession: the unionization of the workforce and the move of diploma-granting nursing schools out of the hospitals (first to regional schools, then to the community colleges). At the same time, university nursing programs were undergoing significant changes. A paradigm shift occurred in which baccalaureate-prepared nurses were being educated for practice as well as for roles in education and administration. While all these activities had overall positive implications, there were unintended effects that continue to influence the profession today. These include the detachment of employers from clinical nursing education; fragmentation of the profession between front-line staff and the professional elites (proletarianization); rejection by front-line practitioners and college educators of nursing scholarship in favour of experiential and technical knowledge; and rivalry between college and university educators that has hampered the development of effective collaborations. For this study, interviews were undertaken with three informants, and their recollections were considered in the context of documentation from the College of Nurses of Ontario (the regulatory body), the Ontario Nurses Association (the union) and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (the professional association).

Academic Nursing Centers: The Road From the Past, The Bridge to the Future

This article explores the development of academic nursing centers within an environment of evolving health policy and changing priorities and resources within nursing education during the past 3 decades. Etheredge's framework for this discussion identifies three health policy eras: the Age of Traditional Health Insurance (1965-1982); the Age of Regulated Prices for Government Programs (1983-1992); and the Age of Markets, Purchasing, and Managed Care (1993-2000). In this article, I suggest the current era is the Age of Uncertainty and Opportunity. Within each era, health policy changes are summarized, and changes in nursing education that influenced the evolution of academic nursing centers are identified. The uncertainty and opportunity of the current era is explored within the context of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports issued in 2000 and 2001. The new vision for clinical education in the health professions described in the 2001 report provides new opportunities for academic nursing centers. To take advantage of these opportunities, these centers must focus on quality issues as they continue to maintain a precarious balance between meeting the service needs of their clients and the academic needs of the nursing programs that own them. Centers that maintain this balance will be a bridge to the future for quality health professions education.

Leadership in nursing education: voices from the past

When education for nurses became a reality, leaders in the emerging profession spoke out early and often for educational improvements to prepare those who would nurse. The writings and speeches of Isabel Hampton Robb, Mary Adelaide Nutting, Lavinia Lloyd Dock, Lillian Wald, and Isabel Maitland Stewart formed the basis for a qualitative study that documents the voices of early nursing leaders who contributed to the development of nursing education as it moved from "training" toward professional education in a university setting. What is documented in the literature is the desire of these women to enhance the professional status of nursing through improvements in its educational system.

The development of nurse training in the Birmingham Teaching Hospitals, 1869-1957

This paper is based upon research undertaken in the Birmingham City Archives in which the development of nurse training and education is traced from its beginnings in 1869 to the creation of a central school for the Teaching Hospitals in 1957. The results from this research are discussed in the context of national developments in training and as such developments in Birmingham can be seen as typical of many towns and cities in provincial England, during the period under study.

Baccalaureate nursing education development in 2 Baltic countries: Outcomes 10 years after initiation

BACKGROUND

Baccalaureate nursing education began in the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania ten years ago to prepare nursing teachers and leaders.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the study was to assess the outcomes of the initial baccalaureate programs for nurses in Latvia and Lithuania from the perspective of program graduates.

METHOD

The method was an alumni survey developed by the authors in English and translated into the respective languages.

DISCUSSION

Most of the Latvian and Lithuanian alumni respondents were staff nurses on entering the baccalaureate programs, but after graduation were making a contribution as nursing leaders and teachers.

CONCLUSIONS

The initial baccalaureate programs for nurses have been followed by increasing opportunities for nurses to pursue graduate study and careers in and outside of nursing. The infusion of prepared local nursing faculty to replace physician faculty and foreign short-term guest faculty promises continued development of nursing education.

A comparative analysis of the relationships between nursing service, education and finance

The last few decades of the 20th century have brought considerable social, political and economic changes spawned by momentous scientific and technological advances. The amount of available knowledge continues to multiply at a staggering pace. No country or profession has been able to escape the impact of this knowledge explosion; however, the UK and British nursing has had to cope with more than their fair share of change. This article considers the developments in nursing over the past few decades to the present day, with particular reference to service provision, education and financing issues. It argues that nurses and nurse educators need to be more proactive in setting the agenda for nursing's future development otherwise nursing is in danger of sacrificing its core traditional values.

Nurse education yesterday? A memoir of experiments in mental health nurse education (1987-96)

After a decade of community mental health care, the time is ripe for critical evaluation not only of the policy itself, but also of appropriate nurse education. This paper fills some gaps in the historical record of the early years of community care by describing some educational innovations within one of the earliest services to abandon mental hospitals. Whilst it is accepted that the libertarian, experimental nature of the courses described may be accused of contributing to the alleged early failings of community care, it is also suggested that such educational experiences may assist the establishment of positively therapeutic nursing relationships. Current modular courses are generally more tightly structured, highly assessed, research-based and technical. Recent claims suggest that whilst nurses are more highly educated, there may be a reduction in the quality of the caring relationships they establish. This account of largely unreported, process-based courses implicitly suggests that mental health nurse education might be better as a creative synthesis of such theoretical principles with today's more science-based, content-driven courses.