Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing Moves ...

While Lisa’s previous scholarship
focused upon student clinical competency,
nursing pedagogy, and geriatric
dementia nursing, her doctoral dissertation
research topic is on the history of
nursing. Lisa was awarded a prestigious
scholarship from Shandong University
and the China Scholarship Council in
partial support of her studies while here.
She is working under the mentorship of
Dr. Julie Fairman. After she returns to
China and completes her PhD studies,
Lisa will join the faculty at the Shandong
University School of Nursing in the Department
of Women’s Health.
Lisa describes her experience at the
Bates Center in this way:
“Thanks for affording me this opportunity
to conduct a historical study
as a visiting scholar for a year in the
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of
the History of Nursing at the University
of Pennsylvania. I have been deeply
impressed by the scientific historical
studies carried out at the Bates Center.
When I arrived at the Center I received
a warm welcome and invaluable instruction
from the faculty. I am especially
grateful to my mentor, Dr. Fairman,
whose own outstanding work, scientific
standards, and innumerable kindnesses
have always shown me what it means to
be a true scholar. My work here in the
United States is to explore the history
of the specialization of nursing in China
from 1949 to the present. So far, I have
been busy examining materials I have
retrieved from the database of the Chinese
National Knowledge Infrastructure
for the Chinese Journal of Nursing from
1954 to 2008. My plan is to concentrate
on examining mental health nursing and
community nursing as case studies of
specialty nursing and to trace their development
in China. I am also planning to
obtain an overview of the development
of nursing specialization in the United
States. The outcome of my studies here
will be an article that explores the development
of nursing specialization in China.
Since there are few historical studies
of nursing in China, a lot of work needs
to be done in the future. I look forward
to continuing cooperation with the Bates
Center faculty.”
We welcome Lisa and hope her time
here at the Bates Nursing History Center
is extremely productive.
Recent Faculty and Student
Presentations
Several faculty composed a panel
presentation at the October 2008 National
State of the Science Congress on Nursing
Research, Council for the Advancement of
Nursing Science. Julie Fairman moderated
the panel, entitled State of the Science in
Historical Research. Panel members included
Julie Fairman, who presented a paper
entitled The Variable of Race: History
and the Complexity of Data Categories;
Patricia D’Antonio, who presented Process
Versus Outcome: History and Complicating
Research Agendas. Barbra Mann Wall,
who presented Historical Textual Analysis;
Jean Whelan, who presented Methodological
Innovations: Historical Census Data
and Understanding the Past, Present and
Future of Nursing; and Julie Sochalski,
who presented Evidence vs. Policy: Re-Examining
the International History of Nurse
Staffing Ratios.
Faculty also presented several invited
papers at the Penn School of Nursing Family
Weekend in October 2008. Julie Fairman
presented Practice Politics: Nurse
Practitioners and the Negotiation of Patient
Care. Patricia D’Antonio presented
Education for Practice: The Past, Present
and the Future, Barbra Mann Wall presented
The Evolution of Catholic Hospitals:
Nurses and Nuns in Leadership Roles, and
doctoral student Jonathan Gilbride presented
Nursing and the History of Health
Policy.
Bates Center faculty and students were
also well represented at the 2008 American
Association for the History of Nursing Annual
Conference presenting several papers.
Ellen D. Baer presented Money and Nursing:
An Ambivalent Relationship. Winifred
Connerton presented The Sphinx by Moonlight:
Letters to the American Journal of
Nursing from Nurses Abroad, 1900-1913.
Jennifer Hobbs presented You Say Uniform,
I Say Unified: The Case of the Nursing
Minimum Data Set, 1983-1990. Lynn
Houweling presented ‘Hearts Too Good
to Die’: The Intensive Care Unit and the
American Culture of Death, 1965-1980.
And, Keith Mages presented a poster entitled
The Bellevue Classification Scheme:
The Cultural Commentary of a Nursing
Library Classification System.
In October 2008, Patricia D’Antonio
presented Race, Place, and Professional
Identity: Nursing in Georgia, 1900-1940
(Invited) at the Center for Health, Culture
and Society, Emory University
School of Public Health Dr. Barbra
Mann Wall presented Disaster Narratives
in Early 20th-Century Texas.
(Invited) at Susquehanna University
Medical Humanities Initiative Seminar,
Selinsgrove, PA in Fall 2008 and also
presented Nursing Heroes and History
(Invited) at the First National Certification
Day, Albert Einstein Medical Center,
Philadelphia, PA also in Fall 2008.
Keith Mages presented The Bellevue
Classification Scheme: The Cultural
Commentary of a Nursing Library Classification
System at The Culture of Print
in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Medicine (STEM) Conference held at
the Center for the History of Print Culture
in Modern America, Madison, Wisconsin
in September 2008. Mr. Mages
also presented at the Sixth International
Conference on the Book, The Catholic
University of America, Washington, DC
in October 2008.
Drs. Jean Whelan and Barbra Mann
Wall consulted on the documentary film
History of Nursing; Early Years and History
of Nursing: The Development of a
Profession, an Insight Media production.
Drs. Whelan and Wall also provided
commentary throughout the film. The
production was filmed at the Bates Nursing
History Center and features many
of the History Center’s photographs and
artifacts.
Kudos
Congratulations go out to Doctoral
Student Linda Maldonado, who successfully
passed the General Examination for
MSN/PhD students, to Associate Professor
Patricia D’Antonio for being named
Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of
Manchester (UK) School of Nursing and
Midwifery and to the Editorial Board of
the Latin American Journal of Nursing
–Revista Latino Americana de Enfermagen,
and to Associate Professor Barbra
Mann Wall named a Contributing Editor
of the American Journal of Nursing.