1 Historical Development of Professional Nursing in the United States
Jennifer Casavant Telford, PhD, APN-BC
Arlene W. Keeling, PhD, RN, FAAN
OBJECTIVES
At the completion of this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Discuss the impact of Florence Nightingale's model and the American Civil War on mid to late–19th-century American nursing education.
• Describe the transition of nursing education from the hospital to collegiate programs.
• Discuss the role of nursing licensure in safeguarding the public and developing educational and clinical nursing standards.
• Discuss the development of advanced clinical practice nursing from the 1960s through the present.
PROFILE IN PRACTICE
Laura J. Robinson
Adult Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Student, University of Connecticut School of Nursing
Nursing history is important to me because it has provided me with the opportunity to fulfill my goal to advance my career as a nurse practitioner, a role that was not existent less than half a century ago. Ambitious nurses before me had to establish themselves in a new career, gain recognition, and succeed in order for the position to be present today. One person whom I particularly admire and who helped pave the way is my grandmother, Olive Shea.
Grandma Shea earned her RN diploma in 1944 after completing the 3-year certification program offered by Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. After various nursing positions, she was employed by the University of Connecticut at the campus Infirmary in Storrs, Connecticut, beginning in 1968. At that time the facility was the home to physicians whose time was mainly devoted to scheduled appointments with their student patients, as well as two floors of inpatient beds where nurses provided individualized care.
Grandma Shea recounted that an integral part of her day as a nurse was the 20-minute back rubs she gave to all five