INDUSTRIAL NURSING FROM 1895 TO 1942: DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECIALTY

摘要

This study describes the origin and development of industrial nursing. This specialty is committed to maintaining and promoting worker health and safety and today is called occupational health nursing. Purposes of the study are: to show how industrial nursing developed wiithin the broader field of public health nursing, to describe the interaction of social, political, and economic events as they influenced industrial nursing growth and practice, to provide an understanding of the evolution of the industrial nurse's role, and to relate historical happenings to contemporary issues in occupational health nursing.;The primary sources of data were papers, letters, manuscripts, documents, monographs, and periodical literature. These data included works of nursing, public health and industrial nurse leaders as Lillian Wald, Mary Gardner, Florence Wright, Violet Hodgson, Bethel McGrath and others. The material is organized chronologically with chapters covering about a decade; there is specific subject arrangement about forces such as the Workmen's Compensation Insurance movement, and development of the National Organization of Public Health Nursing.;Findings indicate industrial nursing evolved because of health problems related to industrialism, urbanization, and an immigrant labor force. The Progressive Reform movement made society aware of the devastating effect an unhealthy, unsafe workplace could have on workers and their families. Industrial nursing is closely interwoven with public health nursing during the period of this study. The field of public health nursing was in an organizational stage, and there was no experiential background for the pioneer industrial nurses to draw on for the task of setting up a health service, or educating management and workers about health behaviors. In spite of difficulties the early nurses did remarkable work in laying a foundation for the growth of industrial nursing. The setting for this work, diverse and often isolated workplaces, unattached to any nursing agency, made standardization slow and uneven. Educational qualifications of industrial nurses never reached the desired public health nursing standards because, industrial organizations would hire unqualified individuals, and hospital training schools did not offer the preparation needed for work in industrial settings.