A Study Of The Professional Transformation Of U.S.Urban Visiting Nurses(1880-1920)

At the end of the 19 th century,the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the United States brought to the fore the urban health problems of environmental pollution,epidemic diseases,and weak public health awareness.During the Progressive Era,a group of people with an interest in public health reform began to work.In view of the increasing urban health problems such as the obvious lack of hospital capacity,patients’ avoidance of medical treatment,and high medical costs,visiting nurses with their flexible and affordable characteristics have flourished and completed their professional transformation.This article consists of an introduction,main text,and conclusion,among which the main text is divided into four parts.The first section focuses on the origins and limitations of early visiting nurses in urban America.During the colonial period,nursing was mainly performed by housewives due to the lack of professional nursing staff,and in the second half of the 18 th century,under the influence of epidemics,some charitable groups began to organize women with nursing experience to perform nursing work at home,thus giving rise to the early visiting nurses.Nursing from the colonial period to the 19 th century experienced a development from simple nursing full of superstition to missionary nursing led by religious groups.During this period,although the phenomenon of nurses making house calls had already emerged,these activities were mostly free,charitable services organized by private charitable groups on their own initiative,focusing on providing material relief to the poor,such as giving away food and clothing needed by the poor,in which nurses merely played the role of relief workers and philanthropists.The second part focuses on the dilemmas and reforms in urbanization in the U.S.The late 19 th and early 20 th centuries were a critical period of social transformation in the U.S.The United States achieved the transformation from an agrarian to an industrial nation and the transformation from a rural to an urban society.During the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization,the urban health care environment encountered the dilemma of transformation.a wave of progressivism at the end of the 19 th century,an urban health care reform with the ambitious goal of improving the health of the population flourished,laying the groundwork for the transformative development of the visiting nurse.The third section explores the professionalization of the visiting nurse in the Progressivist era.In response to the health care needs of the late 19 th century,the visiting nurse community changed in terms of training process and professional classification.In terms of education,systematic nursing programs and specialized nursing schools began to emerge in the United States,with multiple types of educational programs and mandatory student participation in nursing practice to accumulate work experience.At the same time,the variety of visiting nurses has increased and their work has become more nuanced,with nurses for different diseases and different groups.In addition,visiting nurses began to break the bonds of charity and religion,and their work became more specialized,and their work was no longer limited to disease care,but gradually expanded to include disease prevention and health maintenance,extending their work from the home to the entire community,and even playing an important role during the Great War.In addition to this,the tendency of administrativeization of visiting nurses has increased.In the late 19 th century,government departments became concerned about the role of visiting nurses in urban health care and began to cooperate with visiting nursing organizations,and the work of visiting nurses gradually merged with government public health work.The fourth part is a reflection on the transformation of the professionalization of urban visiting nurses in the United States.After the transition at the end of the 19 th century,the relationship between visiting nurses and public health organizations became closer,and both parties began to work together to plan health programs and preside over public health work,which marked the handover and change of leadership in public health.At the same time,due to the problems of epidemics and urban pollution in the late 19 th century,visiting nurses no longer limited their work to the treatment of acute and infectious diseases,but began to focus on people’s health issues,raising the health awareness of American citizens,especially the poor.This section discusses the unique significance and value of the professional development of visiting nurses during this period,focusing on clarifying the transformation of visiting nurses toward specialized public health nurses and the impact of the professional transformation of visiting nurses on popular nursing thought and public health reform in the Progressive era.