Nursing 1920's/week 10

This week in nursing history brought us to the 1920's. In the United States the roaring 20's not only described the social structure but I would like to think it described people in general, even in the medical profession. During this time the world had just been run through the mill in the first world war and the beginnings of the social structures leading to the second world war were being set. For the first time we had professionals being incredibly mobile. Nurses going from the States to Europe to help in the aftermath. What these nurses did is bring back what they had learned to benefit the citizens here. One nurse in particular is Mary Breckenridge. Mary was one of the first nurses to bridge the gap between society and how society comes to be, by people being born. She recognized that mothers and neonates needed care.  On the converse we had Margaret Sanger who recognized the importance of reproductive and sexual health for woman and began to offer woman options to prevent pregnancy and make decisions regarding their families that had never been able to be made before. I imagine that this topic was shocking to people during this time period. It remains a hot and highly debated topic today.

We were also asked to look at Call the Midwife this week. I had read the first book and watched the first season before taking this class. I loved the book. I felt like this book offered so much incite into the current and historical world of nursing. These nurses were often placed in less than satisfactory situations and had to learn how to deal with and function in them. As nurses this is a huge lesson we will all have to learn. In order to function effectively we have no choice but to learn this lesson. Not all of our patients will provide text book issues, in fact most of our patients will be complex and interesting and probably difficult in one way or another, and that is alright. We can handle these situations.

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