American Studies ETDs
Publication Date
5-10-1977
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the cultural context in which nursing developed in America. It is the thesis of the dissertation that while there have been many influences on the development of nursing, nursing education, and nursing practice, the predominant influence on all facets of nursing has been that it has been a feminine occupation, and women have had a subordinate status in a society led and controlled by men. The first chapter examines the origins of nursing in America, stressing how, when more men were occupied away from the everyday activities of the society, women became more active and nursing became more acceptable as an occupation for women. As the women's liberation movement promoted women's involvement with society, nursing grew and developed. The second chapter details the problems and issues in the development of nursing education as an acceptable alternative for the education of women in the society. Nursing education was begun at a time when apprenticeship training was the predominant mode for learning a vocation and women were agitating for more educational opportunities. Organized nursing was not strong enough to set standards in hospital controlled nursing schools and so promoted the introduction of nursing into colleges and universities. The next chapter deals with problems and issues in nursing practice. It explicates nursing's struggle to control its practice, to raise standards of nursing care, and to make nursing a profession. The roles and functions of nurses in practice has moved into structured hierarchial systems encouraging dependency, where nurses have been rewarded not for providing nursing care, but for directing the care given. The final chapter examines the nature of current problems and issues within nursing and their relationship with the historic role of women in the society. The chapter also identifies those elements of the female sex role which have been valuable and those which have been detrimental in the development of nursing in America.
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
American Studies
Level of Degree
Doctoral
Department Name
American Studies
First Committee Member (Chair)
Charles DeWayne Biebel
Second Committee Member
Marion Rohovec Fleck
Third Committee Member
Max D. Bennett
Fourth Committee Member
Joel M. Jones
Recommended Citation
Dickens, Marion Rachael. "The Influence of the Position of Women in the Society on the Development of Nursing as a Profession in America." (1977). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/167