Fall - University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Dr. Sochalski received the School of
Nursing’s Dean’s Award for Exemplary
Teaching in 2008.
Doctoral Dissertations
Three Bates Center doctoral students
successfully completed and defended
their dissertations.
In 2006, Mary Gibson defended
her dissertation, From Charity To An
Able Body: The Care And Treatment
Of Disabled Children In Virginia 1910-
1935. This historical study examined the
processes that led to the care of crippled
children in Virginia between 1910 and
1935. The study aimed to unravel the
complex social, economic, and political
climate of that time, and rediscover the
professional knowledge and values that
drew attention to this population and
set the stage for developments in their
care. Virginia, a segregated society during
these years, served as a case study
and provided an example of a southern
state with a large rural population along
with two urban centers. The efforts of the
maturing professions, philanthropists,
lay persons and government programs
shaped the care of children in the state.
Crippled children’s care emerged in
Virginia in the second decade of the 20th
century in conjunction with the introduction
to the Richmond area of orthopedic
surgery as a specialty, the success of
visiting nursing in the identification and
provision of care for poor urban children
and the promotion of health for all Vir-
Dr. Jennifer Hobbs
ginians by the State Health Department.
Fundamental differences in rural and urban
populations, racial tensions and compromises,
and progressive ideas as they
developed in a southern state are discussed.
The study illustrated two waves
of US crippled children’s programs that
roughly corresponded to the prevalence
of two crippling diseases, tuberculosis
and polio. Poverty became a defining
qualification for state supported care, and
the preparation of crippled children for
self support was the prevailing motive.
In February, 2007, Jeannine Uribe
defended her dissertation entitled Nurses,
Philanthropies, and Governments: The
Public Mission of Chilean Nursing,
1900-1945. Dr. Uribe’s dissertation
examines the nursing profession’s response
to the philosophical and financial
influences of foreign nurses, national
and international philanthropies, and the
Chilean government. By examining U.S.
and Chilean documents, Dr. Uribe found
that Chilean nursing developed according
to the goals and funding set by physicians
and government officials. They did
not plan for clinical experience which
left the nurses vulnerable to criticism
due to their lack of skill in caring for
hospital patients. Public health nurses
trained under a U.S. program gained
some status for nurses by maintaining
higher entrance requirements and further
education but positions were limited.
Changes in presidential administrations
as well as the advice of nurse consultants
from the Rockefeller Foundation
helped to bring changes to the public
health system making small improvements
in morbidity and mortality levels.
At the same time, Chilean public health
nurses began to take leadership positions
in nursing education and employment
in the 1940s after fellowships in the U.
S. and Canada. With educated and clinically
experienced visiting nurses working
in the community, patient education
reached the poor in their homes and
communities and nurses were better accepted
as professionals when the Chilean
health care system became nationalized.
Our most recent graduate is Dr.
Jennifer Hobbs who defended her dissertation
this past spring. The title of her
dissertation is Naming Power: A Historical
Analysis of Clinical Information Systems,
1970-1990. Her study approaches
clinical information systems (CIS) as a
compilation of skills, tools and knowledge
needed to provide patient care. Dr.
Hobbs examined how nurses involved
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7
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