Nurses Without Borders: The History of Nursing as U.S. International History
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1891/1062-8061.19.78
Abstract
During World War I and its aftermath, thousands of U.S. nurses put their domestic careers on hold to work overseas. Many volunteered in the wake of war and disaster. Others worked as instructors in nursing schools and as the staff of fledgling public health agencies. This article charts the international travels of four especially mobile nurses, whose globetrotting careers took them to Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. These women aspired to tackle world health issues, motivated by the conviction that the spread of U.S. professional nursing ideas stood to modernize the world. This article tells these nurses' stories and analyzes their ideologies of development and progress. In so doing, it demonstrates that professional women, working outside state channels, played a principal role in expanding U.S. influence in the world. Moreover, it makes the case for the centrality of nursing history to the history of U.S. foreign relations.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Nursing History Review, v. 19, issue 1, p. 78-102
Scholar Commons Citation
Irwin, Julia F., "Nurses Without Borders: The History of Nursing as U.S. International History" (2011). History Faculty Publications. 281.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/hty_facpub/281
