Nurses on the Front Line: When Disaster Strikes, 1878-2010 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 082610519X ISBN 13: 9780826105196

Publisher: Springer Publishing Co Inc, 2010

Synopsis

This book examines how nurses have responded to natural and man-made disasters in the in the US and Canada over the course of the previous and current centuries. It identifies the care delivered during various disasters; explicates how nurses at the local level intersected with the American Red Cross (ARC), American Nurses Association (ANA), the U.S. Public Health Service, and other federal/state organizations; describes how this intersection changed over time; and analyzes how issues of race, class, and gender influenced the ways nurses and other health care professionals responded to disasters. In each disaster, the safeguards developed, such as urban fire departments and hospitals, were overwhelmed. At the same time, these disasters (see TOC) prompted health care workers, survivors, and civic and private organizations to reflect on the character and speed of responders as documented in letters, memoirs, oral histories, newspaper stories, and professional publications. This book, while asserting that nurses and other health care workers sought to restore stability in the aftermath of a chaotic event, also illustrates how such events can temporarily unravel stable gendered, social, racial, and geographical boundaries while informing and changing professional attitudes to, and standards of, practice. Nine disasters, from the Galveston hurricane of 1900 to the Coconut Grove nightclub fire to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, are discussed.

About this title

About the Author

Barbra Mann Wall, PhD, RN, is a nurse historian known for her studies on women and health care institutions and for her focus on Catholic hospitals and oral histories of retired nurses. Her recent work addresses the history of disaster nursing in the Southwest and the way people interpret disasters of the past. She is associate professor and associate director at the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History Nursing, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, with previous faculty positions at Purdue and Duke Universities. She is widely published, with 19 refereed journal articles and 2 books, one of which, Unlikely Entrepreneurs: Catholic Sisters and the Hospital Marketplace, won the 2006 Lavinia Dock Award for Best Book, American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN). Her newest book, American Catholic Hospitals: A Century of Changing Missions and Markets, is in press with Rutgers University Press. Dr. Wall is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the American Association for the History of Nursing and Medicine, the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science, and more. She presents at major international and national nursing and women's research meetings and is the recipient of numerous research and program grants, from five to six figures.

From the Back Cover

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"Nurses on the Front Line" examines how nurses have responded to both natural and man-made disasters in the United States, Canada, and other nations over the course of the previous and current centuries. It documents 12 disasters, including the Galveston hurricane of 1900, the 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, September 11th, and Hurricane Katrina.

More than a simple narrative, this text provides intimate first-hand experiences-through letters, memoirs, oral histories, and newspaper articles-of health care workers, survivors, and civic and private organizations that reflect on the character and speed of responders during a disaster. It illustrates how nurses can restore stability in the aftermath of a chaotic event and analyzes the nurses' role as part of a community response. Key features:

• Explains in detail what nurses can expect during disasters and what measures to take when disaster strikes
• Examines previous natural disasters and calls into question whether disasters were caused by accidents or intentional/unintentional human error
• Discusses policy implications of the different disasters, focusing on the federal government's response
• Investigates the roles and effects of race, class, and gender during a disaster

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Edition details

• Publisher: Springer Publishing Co Inc
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082610519X
• ISBN 13: 9780826105196
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 172
• Editor: Wall Barbra Mann, Keeling Arlene