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<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/3995_nurse1_2.rev.1482507416.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Nursing assistant preparing beds for patients, Frederick Douglass Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, c.1945</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/4002_nurse3_2.rev.1482508189.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Students in class, Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, class of 1929</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/3993_insane1_2.rev.1482507416.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane, c. 1900</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/4004_nurse5_2.rev.1482508189.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">July 4, 1918 Celebration in Paris, A regiment of Red Cross nurses, the “Army’s Guardian Angels” - French Pictorial Service</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/4003_nurse4_2.rev.1482508189.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Professional Adjustments Class for Senior Students, Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing, 1949</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/4001_occupational_2.rev.1482507920.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Occupational Therapy Group, Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases, Thirty-fourth and Pine Streets</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/3994_insane2_2.rev.1482507416.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane, c. 1900</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/3998_visiting1_2.rev.1482507417.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Visiting nurses leaving the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia office for daily rounds, c. 1930</div></div></div>
<div class="header-image-background" style="background-image:url('/live/image/gid/21/width/1500/height/435/crop/1/3996_nurse2_2.rev.1482507417.png')"><div class="container"><span class="caption-btn">View image caption</span><div class="caption">Nurse and physician, Philadelphia General Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, c.1925</div></div></div>

Nursing, History, and Health Care

Welcome to the Nursing, History and Health Care website. This unique site serves as a source of historical background information on issues regarding the nursing profession and the provision of nursing care.

Graduates of Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 1897It addresses a wide range of topics critical to comprehending and broadening our understanding of health care and nursing concerns, including the role of professional nurses, nurse shortages, workplace problems and public health issues. This site aims to provide access to information that can be used by practitioners, researchers, educators, policymakers and consumers of health care to gain perspective on health care issues in general and nursing in particular by developing the historical context in which nursing developed as a profession and an occupation and also to increase awareness of the nursing profession’s contributions to health care in the United States.

Funding for the Nursing, History, and Health Care site was received from the National Institute of Health, National Library of Medicine,Scholarly Work in Biomedicine and Health Grant, 1 G13 LM008295 and the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation.

We acknowledge also the American Academy of Nursing’s Expert Panel on Nursing History for its support and consultation in the development of the NHHC website.