Spring 1999 Vol II No2
ISSN 1049-2259
MEMBERS ' CORNER This year the Center received the foll owing tho ught-provoking I ner from Edith P. Lewis, RN , MN, FAAN, former Editorof Nurs ing Research, AlN, and Nurs ing Outlook. Aside from the immed iate salient points the writer makes the letter also spawned the idea that by sharing our members' th ou hts we could make The Ch ronicle a better vehicle for dialogue. We invite our consti tuency to write us abo ut nursing history iss ues, their recoi1ections of the pasl, and opin ions you woul d enjoy getting out of your system. We thank Edith Lew is for he r wonderful letter and fo r permission Lo use it to launch this experi ment. De.ar Dr. BuhJer-Wilkerson : As I enclose this year's contri bution to the Center, Tfind that I can no longer resi I commenting on what seems to me to be an almost aby mal Jack of knowledge about, interest in, or attenlion to the s cial and professional t: r es that have led to the formation, growth and development, and oc ca ·ional demise of our pr fe sionalorganizations . I say "seems" because 1 may be wrong; advancing age, severely impaired vi ion, and a di incli nati on to travel prevent me fro m attending meetings or keeping up very well with the professional Iiteratur . But I st ill talk and correspond with other nurses -- most of them younger than I -- and am amazed at how many olherwi e well-infomled nurses have never heard f the Structure Study, . eem 10 think that ANA and NLN, like Athena sprillging fully anned from the brow of Zeus, prang fully armed from the br w ofTsahel Hampton Rohb (the " fully arm d" from Greek mythology is apt; the two organizati ons have been taking pOI ' h . at 'aeh other ever since), or arc unaware of the dy namics that led up to Esther Lucille Brown's Nursing for the Future. Read ing Joan Lynaugh's warm and perceptive tribute to E leanor Lambertsen in the most recent Chronicl e gave me a nosta lgic attack of' time remembered . ' I wonder how many readers will remem ber the Lysaugbt Report with its "episodic" and "distribu tive" nursing categories. or the Surgeon General' Report on Nursing (it bad both a date and title but, alas,l can't remember either and have no 'ouree materials ), who:e fi 't and much quoted en tence, if! r member this correct ly, was "Nursi ng is a d ep\y troubled profession." OnJy those of my generation and a few students of nursing histo ,I fear. I am 84 and have lived through the same si . decades as ElcanorLambenscn -- not as an activ ist, however, but a bserv r fro m an edi torial viewpoi nt. But I can till rem mber the faces of Alma Scott and Adelaide Mayo, then chief execs o f ANA and LNE respectively, as lhey listen d to their orgauizations being dissected at the last joint convention of A A, NLN"E. and NOPHN that concluded the Structure UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Study in 1952. And, in turn ing my atten SCHOOL OF NUR ING tion to anothe r landmark event in nur mg. I remember quall y well the reaclions of most of nursing'S leaders as thc char ismatic Shirley Tilus pushed ANA into
Center for The Study of The History of Nursing
(cont inued on flage 4)
Edilh P _Lewi!>