History of Black Nurses

Mary Eliza Mahoney 1845-1926

She was the first African-American registered nurse in the U.S.A. Mary Eliza Mahoney is known not only for her outstanding personal nursing career, but also for her exemplary contributions to local and national professional organizations. Mahoney inspired both nurses and patients with her calm, quiet efficiency and untiring compassion. Patients tended by Mahoney throughout her career gave glowing testimony of her expert and tender care. She graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses in 1879.

She was one of only three persons in her class to complete the rigorous 16 month program. In 1909, Mary Eliza Mahoney gave the welcome address at the first conference of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN).

Male Nurses of the Past

One male nurse in history was Fray (Friar) Juan de Mena. He was the first American nurse seventy years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Fray (Friar) Juan de Mena was shipwrecked off the south Texas Coast. He is the first identified nurse in what was later to become the United States.

Male Nurses of the Past

A famous male nurse in history was Walt Whitman (1819-1892), poet and writer, served as a volunteer hospital nurse in Washington, DC during the Civil War. He recorded his experiences in a collection of poems called "DRUMTAPS" and in his diary, "SPECIMEN DAYS and COLLECT."

Famous Male Nurses

St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614) founded the Nursing Order of Ministers of the sick. Men of this order cared for the dying, people stricken with the plague, and alcoholics. St. Camillus opened a hospital for alcoholics in Germany. St. Camillus de Lellis
was born at Bacchianico, Naples in 1550 and died at Rome July 14, 1614.

Famous Nurses in History

Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail was the first American Indian graduate registered nurse, fully prepared to pursue her dream of dedicating her life to helping Native American peoples. Susie completed her formal education by training at the Franklin County Memorial Hospital in Northfield and then practicing at Boston City Hospital. One of Susie's most cherished distinctions was granted in 1978, when the American Indian Nurses Association named her "Grandmother of American Indian Nurses."

Male Nursing History

One famous male nurse of the past was James Derham. He was an African American man who worked as a nurse in New Orleans in 1783. He was able to save enough money to buy his freedom from slavery. He went on to become the first African American physician in the United States.

National Association of Hispanic Nurses

A brief history of Hispanic nurses - The National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) was founded in 1975 by Ildaura Murillo-Rohde, PhD, RN, ND, FAAN. It evolved out of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Spanish-Speaking/Spanish Surname Nurses´ Caucus, which was formed during the American Nurses Association convention in San Francisco in 1974. In 1976, the organization became the National Association of Spanish-Speaking / Spanish-Surnamed Nurses, which was renamed as the National Association of Hispanic Nurses in 1979.

The American Association for the History of Nursing

The American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) is open to anyone interested in the history of nursing. Founded in 1978 as a historical methodology group, the purpose of the association is to foster the importance of history as relevant to understanding the past, defining the present, and influencing the future of nursing.

Nurses Uniforms History

In the 1950s, nursing in the UK explodes into life as the Health Service gets up and running. A ´Golden Age of Uniforms´ begins. As hospitals became warmer, short sleeves appear and nurses who roll their long sleeves up start wearing arm cuffs or frills to cover up their rolled-up sleeves. Bib-front aprons also replaced the older aprons.

Male Nursing History

John Ciudad (1495-1550) founded the order of the brothers of St. John of God or the Brothers of Mercy in (1538). He opened a hospital in Grenada and asked a group of friends to assist in providing care to the mentally ill, homeless, crippled, derelicts, and abandoned children. Men of this order also visited the sick in their homes.

More Famous Nurses in History

Rufaidah bint Sa´ad was a pioneer of nursing in Islam. She lived at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the 1st century AH/8th century CE. Her full name was Rufaidah bint Sa´ad of the Bani Aslam tribe of the Khazraj tribal confederation in Madinah. She was born in Yathrib before the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). She was among the first people in Madina to accept Islam and was one of the Ansar women who welcomed the Prophet on arrival in Madina.

Famous Nurses in History

Florence Nightingale
1820-1910

She was a British Unitarian and a nurse who founded nursing as a modern profession. She was also a mathematician. A pioneer in the nursing field, she established herself as a competent nursing administrator during the Crimean War, where her insistence on sanitary conditions cut the death rate considerably. Florence Nightingale continued to advance the field in her later years, providing better health service and opportunities for women at the same time.

She was called the "Lady with the Lamp." She made history with her nursing work in the Crimean War and helped shake up the field of medicine. Her opinions on women physicians and her invention of the pie chart are included.

More Famous Nurses in History

Ethel Fenwick was the first nurse on the world's first Nursing Register. She was also the founder of the British Journal of Nursing in 1893 and the founder and 1st president of the International Council of Nurses.

Federal Nurse Reinvestment Act

In response to the national nursing shortage, the federal Nurse Reinvestment Act of 2002 was signed into law in August 2002. The Act amends Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act and authorizes new programs to increase the number of qualified nurses and the quality of nursing services in the U.S. Funding to implement the new programs was appropriated by Congress in February 2003.

The federal Nurse Reinvestment Act provides authority for scholarships and loan repayments for nursing students, and public service announcements to promote nursing careers. The Senate bill also contains authority for stipends and other supports for nursing students, grants to promote the Magnet criteria for best practices for nursing administration, funding for faculty development, career ladder programs, and funding for residencies for nursing specialties.

History of Nursing Uniforms

In 1860, The Nightingale Training School for Nurses opens at St. Thomas´s Hospital in London. Nursing is recognized as an honorable profession. Nurses uniforms tended to be nearly floor-length dresses with very long pinafore-type white aprons (they weren´t like the bib-front aprons of the 1950´s, but had side straps that went over the shoulders), the dresses had long sleeves with starched white collars and cuffs. Some had starched bows around the neck instead. Caps were frilly and were often kept in place by ties under the chin.

More History of Nurses Uniforms

From 1914-1918, World War brings home the importance of Florence Nightingale´s work and reinforces the importance of Military Nurses such as the Queen Alexandra´s Imperial Nursing Service (QAINS) and the Queen Alexandra´s Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS). Nurses are wearing tippetts, short, shoulder-covering cloaks which bear badges or stripes denoting their ranks.