Innovations: Nursing Science, Education, Practice - University of ...

Faculty Publications 1 9 9 8 - 1 9 9 9
The Miracle of the ICN
Swan, B.A., & Cotroneo, M.
(1999). Financing strategies for a
community nursing center.
Nursing Economics. 17(1), 44-48.
One hundred years ago in London, women’s rights, social pro g ressivism, and nursing
intersected, giving birth to the International Council of Nurses. The handful of
radical nurses who formed this group were committed to the idea that their pro f e s s i o n
p roved women were capable of responsible, professional work, making suffrage only
natural and f a i r.
“The power of the idea is impressive,” said Joan E. Lynaugh, PhD, RN, FAAN, RN.
“These women thought that if they could create a worldwide professional women’s
o rganization run by women, it would set a new example for what women could do.”
Ethel Beford
Fe n w i c k , a founder
of ICN
The creativeness, the inventiveness of these women was capt
u red by Lynaugh when, at the ICN’s request, she directed the
re s e a rch and writing of Nurses of All Nations, A History of the
I n t e rnational Council of Nurses 1899-1999 (Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins, 1999). To tackle such a daunting assignment, she assembled
a team of five other historians: Barbara L. Brush, (GNu’82,
PhD’94) now at Boston College, Nancy J. Tomes of the State
University of New York at Stony Brook, Anne Marie Raff e rty of
the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine, Mery n
S t u a rt of the University of Ottawa, and Geertje Boschma of the
University of Calgary.
The ICN opened its international archives in Geneva to the
historians, who also searched libraries at Columbia
and Boston Universities. The six contacted historians
t h roughout the world and read correspondence dating
back a century.
“The enthusiasm these nurses had for each other
and their endurance over all this time was extraord i-
n a ry,” Lynaugh said. “They were constantly being
pulled apart by world events, but they continued to
come together at great personal financial expense.
They shared and loved the idea of nursing.”
To d a y, the ICN serves as the forum for debating and
establishing nursing standards throughout the world.
The re s e a rch for Nurses of All Nations, her fourt h
h e a l t h - c a re history book, allowed Lynaugh to fully
a p p reciate the ICN’s influence.
“ Without the ICN, another group might have filled the vacuum after World War I,” she
said. “It probably would have been the International Red Cross, and it would have been
a very diff e rent story for nursing.
“The Red Cross was about solving immediate post-war problems, not setting nursing
s t a n d a rds or improving education. ICN can take the credit for encouraging the movement
of nursing out of a subjugated state in 1900 to a fairly autonomous state today. ”
F o rmer ICN Executive Director Constance A. Holleran, MSN, FAAN, RN, served on
P e n n ’s faculty from 1996-1999. ■
Janet A. Deatrick
Deatrick, J., Angst, D., &
Madden, M. (1998). Pro m o t i n g
s e l f - c a re with adolescents.
J o u rnal of Child and Family
Nursing, 1(2), 65-76.
Deatrick, J., Brennan, D., &
C a m e ron, M.E. (1998). Mothers
with multiple sclerosis: Effects of
fatigue and exacerbations on
m a t e rnal support . N u r s i n g
R e s e a rch, 47(4), 205-210.
Deatrick, J., & colleagues. (1998).
Working towards a future of
pediatric advanced practice nursing:
Society of Pediatric Nurses
Task Force, Part I. J o u rnal of the
Society of Pediatric Nursing, 3,
8 5 - 8 8 .
Deatrick, J., Lipman, T., Thurber,
F., Ash, L., Carlino, H.,
McKnight, H., & Rutstein, R.
(1998). Nutritional assessment
for children who are HIV- i n f e c t-
ed. Pediatric Nursing, 24(2), 137-
141, 149.
M o reno, J., Caplan, A., Wolpe, P. ,
& Members (including Deatrick,
J.) of the Project on Inform e d
Consent, Human Research Ethics
G roup. (1998). Updating
P rotections for Human Subjects
Involved in Research. J o u rnal of
the American Medical Association,
2 8 0(22), 1951-1958.
Lois K. Evans
Capezuti, E., Strumpf, N., Evans,
L., Grisso, J., & Maislin, G.
(1998). The relationship between
physical restraint removal and
falls and injuries among nursing
home residents. J o u rnal of
G e ro n t o l o g y, 53A(1), M47-M52.
Capezuti, E., Talerico, K.,
S t rumpf, N., & Evans, L. (1998).
Individualized assessment and
i n t e rvention in bilateral siderail
use. Geriatric Nursing, 19(6),
3 3 2 - 3 3 0 .
Evans, L.K. (1998). Forw a rd. In
MA Rosswurm (Ed)., H o m e c a re
for older adults: a guide for fami -
lies and other care g i v e r s, (xi-xii).
New York: Springer Publishing
C o m p a n y.
32 P e n n N u r s i n g