Women’s Influence in Medicine
There are many women who had huge influences in the advancement of heath and medicine. Many people don’t realize how much women do and how much they have contributed to the medical world and its advancements. From Lillian D. Wald, who worked with the less fortunate and children in schools, to Virginia Apgar, who worked with mothers and their newborns and also came up with the “Apgar Score,” and Eku Esu-Williams who is an immunologist and an AIDS Educator. Even though women did so much, many people were sexist and didn’t want to acknowledge what they did or give them the chance to do things, such as become doctors. I want to inform people on how much these women have contributed to the world of healthcare and medicine so that people won’t be so sexist towards women.
There are too many times that the nurses are taken for granted as a part of the school system. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the school nurse was completely unknown, even though diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, chickenpox, and many other eye and skin conditions affected thousands of school children, and not to mention all of the injuries that could occur from day to day at school, in class or during recess. But, thanks to Lillian D. Wald and her visions, efforts, dreams, companions, and her hard work, the situation in most schools changed. In 1902, the school-nurse program began to succeed, and it was one of the very first steps in the development of the public-health nursing system in the United States.
Lillian Wald was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 10, 1867 into a cultured Jewish family. Both of her parents were immigrants, her mother was from Germany and her father was from Poland. The Walds’ moved from Cincinnati to New York where Lillian’s father, Max, dealt in optical wares in Rochester. She had the advantage of a very good education; not only did she know Latin, but she also spoke German and French as well as English.
By the time she reached the age of 21, Lillian felt that she needed secure work because she didn’t have any plans for marriage. To try to fill the need she had felt, Lillian chose nursing. She enrolled into the New York Hospital Training School for Nurses, and after finishing the two-year program at the Nursing School in 1891, she took a position at the New York Juvenile Asylum.
historians as being April 16th. Mary became interested in becoming a nurse as a teenage girl.
Elizabeth Blackwell was notably one of the most influential people to both medicine and women’s rights. Although her most famous achievement was being the first woman to graduate from medical school, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell's accomplishments did not end there, she devoted her life to helping others-both in healing and in education, and also with the help of colleagues founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. She was one of the most influential women of her time.
Nursing had not initially been a career option for me, but nursing had made an impact on my life, even at an early age. There was a picture frame that sat on my mother’s dresser with an image of her in her student nurse uniform. It was very formal, and she wore a blue cape with red satin lining. This image gave me my first impression of nursing. Helping my mother with the laundry, bleaching the white uniforms and starching the stiff white cap banded with a thin black velvet ribbon was another activity I associated with nursing. In 1979, my mother was sent to Hershey Medical Center for training to become the first certified Enterostomal Therapist in the state of Virginia. It was at that point that I realized that nursing was a profession, with unique career goals, education and training that was
As Head nurse, Debi Bradfield put it, “ Everyday I am constantly bombarded everywhere at school - in the hallways, in the lunchroom, in the classroom, on the playground- with the responsibility of assessing what I see to make sure students are okay.” She shared that as a school nurse, she uses ALL of her nursing skills all the time. “ There is an idea that schools nurses operate very differently than a
... donors? And seeing what Clara Barton has done – everything she has done, from the beginning of her life to the last moments of it – how can anyone say that women are not equal to men in their power and their influence? Clara is not only a symbol of kindness, of determination, and of generosity; she is also a symbol of equality, she is proof that no one man or women is greater than the next, and that anyone, no matter how big or how small, no matter their sex or their race or their physical attributes, can make a name for themselves.
During World War I and World War II, America called upon thousands of women to become nurses for their country to help in hospitals and overseas units. America’s calling was considered a success and by the end of World War I, 23,000 nurses served in Army and Navy cantonments and hospitals, 10,000 served overseas, and 260 either died in the line of duty or from the influenza pandemic (“Nursing Reflections”, 2000, p. 18). In the early 1930s, nurses experienced the devastation of the depression. Families were very poor and unable to feed themselves let alone pay for a nursing visit. This caused many nurses to seek work elsewhere. Nurses who were lucky to be empl...
Although nursing has not always been considered a profession, it has been known in the Unites States for many centuries. In the 1900s, women were not educated in medical art, but men always counted on them to take care of the sick or wounded people. With the organization of the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the Unites States, the history of nursing started. It became clear to people all across the United States that preparation was needed to protect the sick the injured and sick from unskilled nurses, who had no well-known knowledge to give the proper care to injured. In the early 1900s, almost all of the United States passed a nurse licensure law. Training hours became shorter and qualifications were strictly enforced for attending nursing schools. During the Great Depression, nurses attending school had a difficult time. The Works Progress Administration used most nurses. The Civil Works Administration employed others to help better the depression. ”Virginia Henderson, who is well known as ‘the first lady of nursing’ graduated from the Army School of Nurs...
The infamous nursing pioneer, Dorothea Elizabeth Orem, set the bar for nurses worldwide. She was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where she graduated from high school in 1931. While in college, she pursued her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing Education and she also earned her Masters of Science in Nursing Education. When she first began practicing, she worked at Providence Hospital in Washington D.C. She then continued her early career at St. John’s with the position of administration. Once she achieved her advanced degrees, she became director of the Providence Hospital School of Nursing in from 1945-1948 in Detroit, Michigan. While directing at this particular school of nursing, Orem also taught biological sciences...
Once upon a time, my best friend, Bryan Martinez, often heard his mother’s medical conversations with friends. One day at school, our teacher confronted Mrs. Martinez and told her that she was able tell that Bryan was a son from a nurse. Apparently there was an incident at school where a little boy was acting out and Bryan told our teacher that the little boy was agitated, and to give him some medication to calm him down. As demonstrated by Bryan, nursing is ongoing profession that promotes the health and well-being of individuals.
Registered Nursing dates back to the medieval times. Although the modern ideas of nursing didn’t come about till the nineteenth century. Florence Nightingale had a strong impact on the nursing world, she dedicated her life to begin army hospital during the Crimean War. These ideas weren’t put into practice though until the Civil War. During this time the nurses were not licensed but were concerned individuals who volunteered rather than being hired. The first school of nursing was in Boston, Massachusetts in 1873. It wasn’t until 1938 that New York passed the law that practical nurses had to be licensed. There have been many changes since registered nursing had taken place. Today’s nurses are highly educated and are licensed health ca...
In 1970 women comprised 7.6% of physicians in the United States (see Table 1). Today 38.2% of physicians are women (see Table 4). This sharp influx of female physicians among the United States' labor force is largely due to changes in women's roles in American culture and society. Political movements and newly adopted policy in the 1970s sparked social and cultural changes, which led to the increase in female doctors over the past fifty years. While in some occupations, such as grade-school teachers, there exists a linkage between the declining status of the occupation and the increased female representation in the occupation, this trend is not seen among physicians.
...ate. The pressure to meet different requirements by different administrations, teaching many health education topics and dealing with school-age children make the school nurse job very challenging and proves to be far from the idea that school nurses are only responsible for treating student’s injuries.
The profound importance of nursing in our culture begins with the little people and the forgotten importance of the school nurse.
A women's role has changed tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today. Many years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Women are standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas. Women's role has changed at an accelerating rate and have part in areas such as Politics, Professional Training Jobs, Medicine,Business and Law. Formerly they were not part of any political matter, but they have advanced in many aspects. For example, women have attained power and have been growing in political office.
Thanks to our strong, motivated, committed, dedicated, and determined women: who fought for the valued rights of woman everywhere. Without all the feminist, and woman activist women would probably still be oppress. Thank you to women like Eleanor Smeal, Bonnie Briggs, Maya Angleou, and Ms. Bensedrine, and Sadie Alexander (founder of DST).