News From The Center
The Center for the Study of the History of Nursing is pleased to announce the following individuals have been selected to receive summer research awards
1999 Alice Fisher Society Historical Scholar: John Kirchgessner, Doctoral Student, University of Virginia
Mr. Kirchgessner is a pediatric nurse practitioner who has researched early twentieth century miners’ hospitals and health care delivery in West Virginia’s coal fields. This summer he will focus on the development of hospitals, specifically public hospitals, and delivery of national health care in the early twentieth century. His research will seek information to compare and contrast the miners’ hospitals with national trends of the era. In addition, areas of labor history, particularly related to coal mining and labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century will be explored.
1999 Lillian Sholtis Brunner Summer Fellow: Kathleen G. Burke, Doctoral Student, University of Pennsylvania
Ms. Burke’s research topic is entitled "The Development and Diffusion of Health Care Technology: the Role of Nursing, 1965-1990." With a background in critical care nursing and education, Ms. Burke’s goal is to analyze, from a social historical perspective, the development and diffusion of health care technology in the late decades of the twentieth century to better understand the influence of social, cultural, economic, and political factors on clinical practice and decision making in the use of technology.
Current Research at The Center
The following individuals are Ph.D. candidates at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and frequent research patrons of the Center. Their research topics, which will be of interest to our readers, are described briefly.
Kathleen G. Burke, MSN, RN Dissertation Title: The Development and Diffusion of Health Care Technology : A Case Study of The Pulmonary Artery Catheter. Progress thus far includes: Course work completed, Proposal successfully defended. Currently gathering data and writing related field papers. Plan for completion in 2000. Funding sources at this point include: Baxter Health Care Corporation - Edwards Critical Care Division, Sigma Theta Tau XI Chapter, Southeastern Pa Chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nursing, American Association for the History of Nursing Competitive Student. Research Award: 1999 Lillian Sholitis Brunner Summer Fellowship at The Center for the Study of the History of Nursing (summer 1999).
Katy Dawley Dissertation title is Leaving the Nest: Nurse-Midwifery in the United States 1955-1980. The dissertation analyzes nurse-midwifery's transition from physician directed to independent practice. After the founding of the American College of Nurse-Midwifery in 1955, nurse-midwifery experienced dramatic expansion in educational opportunities, numbers of graduate nurse-midwives, and numbers of practice sites. These developments were part of the two decades of social transformation ignited by demands for civil rights, women's liberation, and control over childbirth. The study will examine the impact of social structures, institutional forms of power, gender and class relationships, and economic changes on nurse-midwifery's transition toward autonomous practice within the context of mid twentieth century ferment. Achievement of autonomy will be analyzed through examination of nurse-midwives ability to control entry into practice, regulation of practice, and the institution of the birth center, an institution for nurse- midwifery practice, policy, and education.
Jean Whelan Title of dissertation: Employing Nurses: The Conversion of Private Duty Nurses to Staff Nurses, 1923-1963. It is actually an historical study of the nurse labor market during those years, identifying and analyzing the supply and demand for nurse services and issues and problems surrounding the nurse job market. Has received funding from the following sources: NRSA, Predoctoral Fellowship; XI Chapter, Sigma Theta, Tau, University of Pennsylvania; Sigma Theta Tau, International, Small Grants Award; American Nurses Foundation, Eleanor Lambertson, RN Scholar Grant; Rockefeller Archives Center grant.
Beth Ann Reedy Dissertation topic is Premature Infant Care in the U.S., 1922-1946. Currently has NRSA funding for 18 months (9/30/98 - 3/30/00). Previously had two Sigma Theta Tau chapter grants - one from Xi chapter (Penn) and one from Delta Rho chapter (Thomas Jefferson University).
Cynthia Connolly Dissertation Title: Nurturing Incarceration: Children and the Tuberculosis Preventorium, 1900-1945. A new TB category, the potentially sick child, was created with the advent of the tuberculin test in 1907. The finding that large numbers of children harbored the tuberculosis (TB) bacillus galvanized Progressive activists to implement a number of preventive, diagnostic, and treatment alternatives. This dissertation analyzes the little known nursing role in the preventorium movement, an early twentieth century crusade to prevent pediatric TB. Believing that sickly children of poor tubercular parents suffered from "physiological poverty", many such youngsters were sent to rural institutions. This "nurturing incarceration" was a nexus for the Progressive crusades of tuberculosis prevention, public health nursing, child-saving and eugenics.
The preventorium crusade is little remembered, but its central precept, ascertaining whether or not a child hailed from a"good" or a "bad" home environment, can be observed in many contemporary American social policy debates. Understanding the preventorium movement helps contextualize current issues in a way that affords better understanding of the roots of today's assumptions, biases, and values regarding children and families.
Cynthia’s research has been supported by the National Institute for Nursing Research in the form of an Individual National Research Service Award, Sigma Theta Tau International, and Xi Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau.
Mary Ann Krisman-Scott Dissertation title is The Room at the End of the Hall: Care of the Dying in the United States from 1945 to the Initiation of Hospice. The care of dying cancer patients will be used as the case illustration. Funding sources include: Institutional Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Psycho-social Oncology, Research Training Grant T32NR07035, National Institute of Nursing Research, Dr. Ruth McCorkle, Program Director.