Ordered to care
Subtitle: the dilemma of American nursing, 1850-1945
By: Susan M. Reverby.
Series: Cambridge history of medicine
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1987
Place of publication: Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: Nursing -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Nursing -- United States -- History -- 20th century; History of Nursing -- United States
Other titles: Dilemma of American nursing, 1850-1945.
Description: An engaging study of the dilemmas faced by American nursing, which examines the ideology, practice, and efforts at reform of both trained and untrained nurses in the years between 1850 and 1945. Ordered to Care provides an overall history of nursing's development and places that growth within the context of new questions raised by women's history and the social history of health care. Building upon extensive use of primary and quantitative data, the author creates a collective portrait of nursing, from the work of the individual nurse to the political efforts of its organizations. Dr. Reverby contends that nursing's contemporary difficulties are caused by its historical obligation to care in a society that refuses to value caring. She examines the historical consequences of this critical dilemma and concludes with a discussion of why nursing will have to move beyond its obligation to care, and what the implications of this change would be for all of us.
Notes: Bibliography: p. [277]-280.
Includes index.