Advocacy and Action: 100 Years of Indiana Nursing and the Indiana State Nurses’ Association

Abstract

Advocacy and Action: 100 Years of Indiana Nursing and the Indiana State Nurses' Association Edited by Marjorie Lentz Porter and Barbra Mann Wall (Virginia Beach, VA: The Donning Company Publishers, 2003) (144 pages; $29 ISNA member; $39.00 non-ISNA member, paper). Nursing centennials provide opportunities for celebration. Thus the centennial of the Indiana State Nurses' Association (ISNA) provided the impetus for this book, which celebrates the work and achievements of the ISNA during its first hundred years. Through a series of chronologically arranged chapters, each authored by a different nurse-historian, the book documents the development of nursing in Indiana from the time of the Civil War to the present day. The authors use a variety of primary source materials to present the events, persons, and forces (p. 7) that shaped nursing in Indiana. Woven throughout the work are the strands of gender, race, economics, and community. Themes such as collaboration, advocacy, service, and leadership are carried through each of the chapters, effectively unifying the events described into a cohesive record. The first chapter, authored by Kathleen Pickrell and Karla Backer, describes the work of Indiana volunteer nurses, such as Eliza George from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who provided care to Hoosier soldiers during the Civil War. Also included in the chapter are descriptions of events that led to the establishment of the first dispensaries, hospitals, and nurse training schools in Indiana. When City Hospital in Indianapolis opened its training school for nurses in 1883, it was only the second program for nurses to be founded east of the Allegheny Mountains. In the second chapter, Barbra Mann Wall relates the formation of the Indiana State Nurses' Association and its members' struggle to secure legislation to institute nursing registration in their state. In 1905, Indiana became only the sixth state to pass a registration and was the first midwestern state to enact such a law. Sarah BeIk Brown, chair of the ISNA's Legislative Committee, remarked about her efforts at lobbying for passage of the law, [If] I was acquainted with any person of influence or knew anyone who might know someone who could bring any influence upon legislators, their interests were promptly (p. 31). In 1904, the Association adopted as its motco the word Memor (Latin for mindful). This catchwotd seemed to influence much of the Association's work through its early years. For example, one of the ISNA's first attempts to set standards for nurses was its 1914 draft of a Code of Ethics for nurses. The following chapters, authored by Jane Manning, Diane Eaton, and Linda Rodebaugh, chronicle the responses of ISNA members to major events in United States history. Especially well detailed are the descriptions of service provided by Indiana nurses in times of war. During World War I, nurses served abroad under the auspices of the Red Cross, caring for casualties of the war. Of the nearly 500 nurses from Indiana who served in the war, twelve perished in military zones. In 1941, as yet another world war loomed ahead, the ISNA organized the Nursing Council for War Services to obtain enough nurses to meet the needs of the aimed forces. The Council also collected data about nurses on the Indiana home front so that they could be called upon to replace those nurses who had enlisted fot military service. …