Main description:

This book provides a historical analysis of the Frontier Nursing Services in the Eastern Appalachians of the United States, as well as a review of the oral history tradition of former frontier and non-frontier nurses. The data was gathered from 2003 to 2007, and the historical part covers the years 1900 to 1970.

The objective of the study presented here was to conduct interviews with former frontier and non-frontier nurses in order to better understand their family and personal relationships, and the experiences that motivated their career choices. These interviews also give a voice to the working and middle-class women of the FNS. The emerging themes include moral inhabitability in work/education environments, the generational mix, nurse-physician and male-female relationships at the workplace, the role of technology, humanitarian versus financial rewards, and the public image of nurses.

In addition, the book examines how the FNS shifted from a community/grass-roots structure to the corporate/business model of healthcare delivery employed today. In closing, it stresses the importance of explorig past nursing in order to better grasp present nursing. It also represents a testament to the professional work and vital contributions of frontier nurses.

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Background and Introduction to the Frontier Nursing Service

1.1 Modern Problem, Historical Perspective and the Frontier Nursing Service

1.2 Environmental and Organizational Cultures

Chapter 2. Rights, Place and Claims: Culture and Communication in Appalachia

2.1 National versus Eastern Appalachian Culture

2.2 Frontier Nursing Service Culture

2.3 Rights, Place and Claims: Communicative Repertoire in Appalachia

Chapter 3. Diplomacy or Colonial Tendencies: Breckinridge in Appalachia

3.1 Cultural Diplomacy or Colonial Tendencies: Breckinridge in Appalachia

3.2 FNS 'Place' Communicative repertoire in Appalachia: The Early Years

3.3 FNS 'Place' Communicative repertoire in Appalachia: The Latter Years

Chapter 4. Centralized versus Decentralized Power Structures in Appalachia

4.1 Central versus Decentralized Power Structures

4.2 Managers, Leaders & Visionaries: Strong versus Weak Cultures

4.3 The Institutionalization of Childbirth

4.4 The 1960s: 'War on Poverty' or Corporate Colonization?

Chapter 5. 'Morally Uninhabitable' or 'Just Modern Organizational' Workplaces

5.1 Moral Inhabitability and Work Environments

5.2 The FNS and 'Morally Inhabitable Work Environments'

5.3 'Morally Uninhabitable' Environments or 'Just Modern Organizational Life?'

5.4 Institutional Environments: Why Nurses "Eat Their Young"

5.5 Institutional versus Professional Identity or 'Whose Gal are You?'

Chapter 6. Gender and Role Assignments in the Institutional Hierarchy

6.1 Gender, Role Assignments, Institutional Hierarchy & their Cultural Value

6.2 Nurse-Physician Relationships

6.3 Gender Role: Myth?

Chapter 7. Moral Inhabitability and Educational Environments

7.1 Moral inhabitability and Educational Environments

7.2 Nursing Educational Cultures: QNI versus FNS

7.3 Professional versus Institutional Conformity: What Makes a 'Good' Nurse?

7.4 Enculturation: Am I 'Just a Nurse' or is It 'Just a Job?'

Chapter 8. Recruitment, Retention and Morally Inhabitable Environments

8.1 The FNS Environment: Recruitment and Retention

8.2 Retention Issues: Humanitarian versus Economic Realities

Chapter 9. Cultural Identity, Public Image and Frontier Nursing

9.1 Cultural Identity, Public Image & the FNS

9.2 'Mission' versus 'Medical Service': FNS as Image Broker

9.3 Uniforms: Professional Image or Symbol of Oppression?

9.4 'Angels of Mercy': Image, Identity, Myth or Marketing Ploy?

Chapter 10. Conclusion

Appendix

Glossary