Fall - University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

2
Barbara Bates Center
for The Study of The
History of Nursing
News from the Center
The Barbara Bates Center for The Study of
The History of Nursing was established in
1985 to encourage and facilitate historical
scholarship on health care history and nursing
in the United States. The Bates Center
maintains resources for research; to improve
the quality and scope of historical scholarship
on nursing; and to disseminate new
knowledge on nursing history through education,
conferences, publications, and interdisciplinary
collaboration.
Current projects at the Center range from
studies of international nursing, home-based
nursing, and research on care of the critically
ill to the twentieth-century relationship
between nursing and American philanthropy.
We also continue to collect, process, and
catalogue an outstanding collection of primary
historical materials.
Center Hours are Monday through Friday,
9:00 am. to 5:00 pm. Scholars planning to
conduct research at the Center should contact
the Center’s curator at 215-898-4502. Our
curator will respond with a description of the
scope and content of relevant materials in the
various collections.
Center Advisory Board
Ellen D. Baer, Chair
M. Louise Fitzpatrick, Vice Chair
Lillian Sholtis Brunner
Ruth Schwartz Cowan
Hannah Henderson
Jeanne Kiefner
Ann P. Knight
Nadine Landis
Mark Frazier Lloyd
Charles E. Rosenberg
Rosalyn Watts
Center Staff
Julie Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN
Director
Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN
Barbra Mann Wall, PhD, RN
Associate Directors
Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, PhD, RN, FAAN
Joan E. Lynaugh, PhD, RN, FAAN
Directors Emerita
Julie Solchaski, PhD, RN, FAAN
Fellow
Jean C. Whelan, PhD, RN
Special Projects Director
Gail E. Farr, MA, CA
Curator
Betsy Weiss, Administrative Assistant
Rita Beatty, Volunteer
From left to right: Joan Lynaugh, Julie Fairman and Ellen Baer on the occasion of
Karen Buhler Wilkerson’s retirement party. Photo: Ira Joel Sartorius
Since the publication of the last
Chronicle, the Bates Nursing History
Center has seen major changes, accomplishments,
and achievements.
In July, 2006, Dr. Karen Buhler-
Wilkerson began a well deserved retirement
from the Faculty of the School
of Nursing and the Directorship of
the Bates Nursing History Center. Dr.
Buhler-Wilkerson served as the second
Director of the Bates Center succeeding
Dr. Joan Lynaugh in 1995. Dr. Buhler-
Wilkerson is engaging in a very active
retirement period as she continues her
research activities here at the Bates Nursing
History Center and serves as Center
Director Emerita.
Dr. Julie Fairman, well known to all
at the Bates Nursing History Center, was
named Center Director in 2006 following
Dr. Buhler-Wilkerson’s retirement.
Dr. Fairman, an Associate Professor of
Nursing, has been connected with the
Bates Nursing History Center since 1985
when she began doctoral studies. She has
held numerous teaching positions at the
School since 1981 and was appointed
to the faculty in 1995. Dr. Fairman is
well recognized in the nursing history
community for her research on the emergence
of hospital critical care units and
the nurse practitioner movement.
In the Fall, 2006, Dean Afaf Meleis
announced the appointment of two faculty
members to newly created positions
for nursing history naming Drs. Patricia
D’Antonio and Barbra Mann Wall to Associate
Professorships. Dr. D’Antonio
was and still is an Associate Director of
the Bates Nursing History Center and
had been an Adjunct Associate Professor
of Nursing since 1995. In her research,
Dr. D’Antonio positions nurses as absolutely
central to the larger interdisciplinary
histories of institutions, clinical
practice, health care policy, and women’s
care work.
Dr. Barbra Mann Wall comes to the
Center from Purdue University where
she was Associate Professor and Director
of the Center for Nursing History, Ethics,
and Innovation. She is widely known for
her studies on women and health care institutions.
Dr. Wall is also a Bates Nursing
History Center Associate Director.
Dr. Julie Solchaski joined the Bates
Nursing History Center as a Fellow in
the Fall, 2007. Her research centers on
the relationship between the structure
and the quality of care and patient outcomes,
and on domestic and international
trends in the healthcare workforce and
their implications for public policy.
Dr. Ellen Baer, Professor Emerita of
Nursing, University of Pennsylvania and
Visiting Professor of Nursing, Florida
Atlantic University assumed the Chairpersonship
of the Bates Nursing History
Center Advisory Board in September,
2006.