Tenth Amendment and Nursing Equals The Most Respected Profession

The United States Constitution has many 21st century impacts on our daily lives that are almost never thought about.  At a time of growing federal regulation of our lives, there remain areas of life where the 10th Amendment, reserving power to the states is alive and well. The nursing profession is among them. Due to […]

ADDA ELDRIDGE: FOUNDING MOTHER OF ILLINOIS PROFESSIONAL NURSING

The story of Adda Eldredge, Founding Mother of Illinois Professional Nursing does not include battlefields or the hospitals near them, like the stories of Florence Nightingale, Dorothea Dix or Mary Ann Bickerdyke.  Her work to professionalize nursing was in the political arena. Her success is astonishing when one considers for a moment that when she […]

Mother Bickerdyke: A Nurse Among Generals

During the early 1860’s Florence Nightingale was getting the world’s first professional nursing school started in London. In the United States, in 1861, Dorothea Dix was appointed Superintendent of the Union Nurses serving in the Civil War. Ms. Dix set strict standards for her nurses to overcome social stigmas surrounding the presence of women in […]