The fork in the road: Nursing history versus the history of nursing?

Nursing History Review

Volumn 10, Issue , 2002, Pages 175-188

  Nelson, Sioban ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; HISTORY OF MEDICINE;

HISTORY OF NURSING; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY;

EID: 0036372010     PISSN: 10628061     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1891/1062-8061.10.1.175     Document Type: Review

References (49)

1. John C. Burnham has grappled with this subject over the past few years, and I have structured the first part of this paper along the lines of his arguments in How the Idea of Profession Changed the Writing of Medical History.
2. I won't get into the notion of profession here. I am using it as a collective noun, something quite commonplace in nursing but problematic in the history of medicine these days. See John C. Burnham, "How the Concept of Professions Evolved in the Work of Historians of Medicine," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 70 (1996): 2.
3. Iatrogenic was coined by George Rosen, "Levels of Integration in Medical Historiography: A Review," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 4 (1949): 460-67.
4. There is no need to rework Burnham's literature review here; see How the Idea of Profession Changed, 114-18. Suffice it to say, from Talcott Parsons to Michel Foucault, social scientists have been skeptical about the professions' claims to status and clinical and ethical authority.
5. Sioban Nelson, "Reading Nursing History," Nursing Inquiry 4 (1997): 229-36.
6. See, for instance, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia Dock, A History of Nursing (New York: G.B. Putnam's Sons, 1974); Lucy R. Seymer, A General History of Nursing (London: Faberand Faber, 1932); Minnie Goodnow, History of Nursing, rev. by J.A. Dolan, 11th ed. (Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders, 1963); Isobel Stewart, A History of Nursing From Ancient to Modern Times, 5th ed. (New York: Putnam, 1962).
7. See, for instance, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia Dock, A History of Nursing (New York: G.B. Putnam's Sons, 1974); Lucy R. Seymer, A General History of Nursing (London: Faberand Faber, 1932); Minnie Goodnow, History of Nursing, rev. by J.A. Dolan, 11th ed. (Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders, 1963); Isobel Stewart, A History of Nursing From Ancient to Modern Times, 5th ed. (New York: Putnam, 1962).
8. See, for instance, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia Dock, A History of Nursing (New York: G.B. Putnam's Sons, 1974); Lucy R. Seymer, A General History of Nursing (London: Faberand Faber, 1932); Minnie Goodnow, History of Nursing, rev. by J.A. Dolan, 11th ed. (Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders, 1963); Isobel Stewart, A History of Nursing From Ancient to Modern Times, 5th ed. (New York: Putnam, 1962).
9. See, for instance, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia Dock, A History of Nursing (New York: G.B. Putnam's Sons, 1974); Lucy R. Seymer, A General History of Nursing (London: Faberand Faber, 1932); Minnie Goodnow, History of Nursing, rev. by J.A. Dolan, 11th ed. (Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders, 1963); Isobel Stewart, A History of Nursing From Ancient to Modern Times, 5th ed. (New York: Putnam, 1962).
10. See the 1838 and 1888 "before and after" images of nursing from Supplement to the Nursing Record, 20 December 1888, reprinted in Celia Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (London: Croom Helm, 1980), 6-7.
11. See the 1838 and 1888 "before and after" images of nursing from Supplement to the Nursing Record, 20 December 1888, reprinted in Celia Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (London: Croom Helm, 1980), 6-7.
12. Nelson, "Reading Nursing History."
13. Sioban Nelson, "A History of Small Things," in Advanced Qualitative Research for Nursing, Joanna Latimer (Oxford: Blackwell Science, forthcoming).
14. By the 1970s a great many scholars were revitalizing the history of medicine, working on its social and intellectual history. See, for instance, the work of Charles Rosenberg, George Rosen, George Vogel, Roy Porter, and William Bynham.
15. Monica Baly's empirical revisions of Nightingale have been extremely important, most notably Florence Nightingale and the Nursing Legacy (London: Croom Helm, 1986).
16. Barry Smith's history of Florence Nightingale is commonly described as iconoclastic. He characterized Nightingale as a deeply flawed personality whose image was carefully crafted in her day, and maintained by a steady stream of hagiography. See F.B. Smith, Florence Nightingale: Reputation and Power (London: Croom Helm, 1982).
17. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
18. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
19. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
20. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
21. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
22. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
23. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
24. Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Anne Summers, Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses, 1854-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988); Susan Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work, Culture, and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982); Robert Dingwall, Charles Webster, and Anne Marie Rafferty, An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing (London: Routledge, 1988); Davies, Rewriting Nursing History (1980); Nancy Tomes, "'Little World of Our Own': The Pennsylvania Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1895-1907," in Women and Health in America: Historical Readings, ed. Judith Leavitt (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). Anne Marie Rafferty is the sole nurse in this list.
25. Nelson, "Small Things."
26. Patricia D'Antonio, "Revisiting and Rethinking the Rewriting of Nursing History," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 73 (1999): 268-90.
27. See, for example, Julie Fairman and Joan Lynaugh, Critical Care Nursing: A History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998); Judith Godden and Sue Forsyth, "Defining Relationships and Limiting Power: Two Leaders of Australian Nursing, 1868-1904," Nursing Inquiry 7 (1) (2000): 12-19. D'Antonio, "Rewriting of Nursing History," offers a full review of nursing historical literature.
28. See, for example, Julie Fairman and Joan Lynaugh, Critical Care Nursing: A History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998); Judith Godden and Sue Forsyth, "Defining Relationships and Limiting Power: Two Leaders of Australian Nursing, 1868-1904," Nursing Inquiry 7 (1) (2000): 12-19. D'Antonio, "Rewriting of Nursing History," offers a full review of nursing historical literature.
29. See, for example, Julie Fairman and Joan Lynaugh, Critical Care Nursing: A History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998); Judith Godden and Sue Forsyth, "Defining Relationships and Limiting Power: Two Leaders of Australian Nursing, 1868-1904," Nursing Inquiry 7 (1) (2000): 12-19. D'Antonio, "Rewriting of Nursing History," offers a full review of nursing historical literature.
30. Rosemary Stevens, American Medicine and the Public Interest (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1971); Mathew Ramsay, "Review Essay: History of a Profession, Annales Style: The Work of Jacques Leonard," Journal of Social History 17 (1983): 319-38.
31. Rosemary Stevens, American Medicine and the Public Interest (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1971); Mathew Ramsay, "Review Essay: History of a Profession, Annales Style: The Work of Jacques Leonard," Journal of Social History 17 (1983): 319-38.
32. A large body of relevant work in the Foucauldian oeuvre could be cited here, but most pertinent are Michel Foucault's Birth of the Clinic, trans. A. Sheridan (London: Tavistock, 1973), and Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. A. Sheridan (London: Pantheon Books, Random House, 1977). The former explored the relationship among knowledge, expertise, and clinical practice; the latter brought into focus the role of surveillance as a form of discipline.
33. A large body of relevant work in the Foucauldian oeuvre could be cited here, but most pertinent are Michel Foucault's Birth of the Clinic, trans. A. Sheridan (London: Tavistock, 1973), and Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. A. Sheridan (London: Pantheon Books, Random House, 1977). The former explored the relationship among knowledge, expertise, and clinical practice; the latter brought into focus the role of surveillance as a form of discipline.
34. Judy Giles, "A Home of One's Own: Women and Domesticity in England, 1918-1950," Women's Stud Internat Forum 16 (1993): 239-53; Sharon Harley, "For the Good of Family and Race: Gender, Work, and Domestic Roles in the Black Community, 1880-1930," Signs 15 (1990): 336-49.
35. Judy Giles, "A Home of One's Own: Women and Domesticity in England, 1918-1950," Women's Stud Internat Forum 16 (1993): 239-53; Sharon Harley, "For the Good of Family and Race: Gender, Work, and Domestic Roles in the Black Community, 1880-1930," Signs 15 (1990): 336-49.
36. D'Antonio, "Rewriting of Nursing History," 285.
37. Celia Davies, Gender and the Professional Predicament (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995).
38. Sioban Nelson, Say Little, Do Much: Nurses, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming).
39. This is not the case in all undergraduate programs. The University of Sydney Faculty of Nursing does in fact teach nursing history at undergraduate and graduate levels. But in general, history is not in the Australian undergraduate nursing curriculum, nor is it taught at the graduate level.
40. Nelson, "Reading Nursing History," 233-34.
41. Christopher Maggs, "Nursing History: A History of Caring," Journal of Advanced Nursing 23 (1996): 630-35.
42. The frequent inclusion of history in qualitative methods texts, such as the one to which I am a contributor (see below), indicates this re-siting of history from a discipline to a free-standing method. For a full critique of this issue, see Nelson, "Small Things."
43. Historiographical debates rage constantly in history. "What is truth?" is the core question for historians above all other scholars. See, for instance, Michael Bentley, ed., Companion to Historiography (London: Routledge, 1997), for an extensive collection of historiographical essays; see also the aftermath of the Francis Fukuyama-inspired "After History" debate in Timothy Burns, ed., After History? Francis Fukuyama and His Critics (Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994); or the erudite George G. Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to Postmodern Challenge (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1997).
44. Historiographical debates rage constantly in history. "What is truth?" is the core question for historians above all other scholars. See, for instance, Michael Bentley, ed., Companion to Historiography (London: Routledge, 1997), for an extensive collection of historiographical essays; see also the aftermath of the Francis Fukuyama-inspired "After History" debate in Timothy Burns, ed., After History? Francis Fukuyama and His Critics (Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994); or the erudite George G. Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to Postmodern Challenge (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1997).
45. Historiographical debates rage constantly in history. "What is truth?" is the core question for historians above all other scholars. See, for instance, Michael Bentley, ed., Companion to Historiography (London: Routledge, 1997), for an extensive collection of historiographical essays; see also the aftermath of the Francis Fukuyama-inspired "After History" debate in Timothy Burns, ed., After History? Francis Fukuyama and His Critics (Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994); or the erudite George G. Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to Postmodern Challenge (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1997).
46. The Australian Nursing History Project is based at the School of Postgraduate Nursing, University of Melbourne, under the directorship of Dr. Sioban Nelson. See www.nursing.unimelb.edu.au/anhp.
47. Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre usage statistics: www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/usage, 2001.
48. This was Janet Wilson James's description in her essay "Writing and Rewriting Nursing History: A Review Essay," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 58 (1984): 568-84.
49. I remain keen to pursue this idea with others.