In a Formidable Nursing Career, Bernardine Lacey Faced and Overcame Racism

Her story is important to know, because it offers an opportunity to learn from the not-too-distant past and explore some of the difficult truths about racism in nursing, the role of the profession in this history, and the effect of these accounts on current diversity and inclusivity efforts.

Lacey meeting with first lady Barbara Bush in the White House in the 1980s.

So write Sandra Lewenson and Ashley Graham-Perel in their article in the August issue of AJN, ‘You Don’t Have Any Business Being This Good’: An Oral History Interview with Bernardine Lacey. In the article, they recount Lacey’s upbringing in the South and the many racial barriers that made it difficult for her in getting an education and pursuing her career—which became a formidable one. As a result of her many accomplishments in education, practice, and leadership, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2014.

Racial barriers remain.

Share this:

2020-08-17T09:38:48-04:00August 17th, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments
Read More

August Issue Highlights: Experiencing Racism in Nursing, Promoting Publications by Nurses, Much More

“Six of the nurses quit when they found out I was coming on because they said they would not take orders from me . . .”—nursing leader Bernardine Lacey on encountering racism in her career, as described in this month’s Historical Feature

The August issue of AJN is now live. Here are some highlights.

Original Research: Understanding Nursing Home Staff Attitudes Toward Death and Dying: A Survey

In this multisite study, the authors surveyed nursing home staff to gain insight into their perspectives on end-of-life care and to identify needs in such areas as pain control and palliative care education and training.

PANDAS: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infection

A review of the pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric neuropsychiatric disorders associated with strep infection, plus teaching points for parents and patients.

Historical Feature: ‘You Don’t Have Any Business Being This Good’: An Oral History Interview with Bernardine Lacey

This article details, in her own words, black nursing leader Bernardine Lacey’s experiences with racism in her childhood, education, and career.

[…]

2020-07-29T09:27:02-04:00July 29th, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

1918 Redux: Supportive Nursing Care for the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Courageous Care

Litter carriers at Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during influenza pandemic of 1918.

The lessons of the past.

As we struggle to make sense of unfolding data, announcements, and public health directives about the current coronavirus pandemic, appreciating the lessons from past pandemics can help us understand the effectiveness and challenges related to quarantines and social isolation, as well as the need for reliable and timely communications.

In times of public health uncertainty, nurses and nursing care have played a critical role in saving lives and relieving suffering. We now know a great deal about the role of nursing during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some lessons need heeding now.

Historian Nancy Bristow’s American Pandemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) presents the historical facts clearly. For example, public health officials’ 1918 prohibitions on public gatherings, the sharing of such (then) new personal items as toothbrushes, and school attendance and religious services met acceptance as well as resistance. […]

2021-01-21T11:05:06-05:00March 18th, 2020|infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing history, Public health|1 Comment
Read More

A Call to Address Fatigue to Protect Nurse Health and Patient Safety—from 1919

The evidence on nurse fatigue has been there all along.

During Women’s History Month, which is about to end, I’ve been posting (here and here) on nursing history (and in the process exploring its close confluence with women’s history). For this last post, I’m highlighting an article published in the March 1919 issue of AJN—exactly 100 years ago. The evidence on fatigue from long working hours has been there all along.

“The Movement For Shorter Hours in Nurses’ Training Schools” (free until April 15; click on the pdf version in the upper right), was written by Isabel Stewart, who was professor and then director of the nursing program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and coauthor of the National League for Nursing Education (the forerunner of today’s National League for Nursing) Standard Curriculum for Schools of Nursing.

A call for 8-hour work days for nurses.

In this article, which is in some ways disturbingly relevant today, Isabel Stewart notes that major nursing organizations recently met and were seeking “to enlist the support of a great many influential organizations and the general public in establishing an eight-hour day and a fifty-two hour week for pupil nurses.” (As a reminder, hospital nursing staff at that time were mostly nursing […]

2019-03-29T11:07:06-04:00March 29th, 2019|Nursing, nursing history, patient safety|3 Comments
Read More

The Complex and Illuminating History of Nurse Participation in Bedside Rounds

This week’s offering in homage to Women’s History Month.

We know from research that interdisciplinary bedside rounds improve communication and create a safer care environment. As noted by the author of a new CE article in the April issue, nurse–physician bedside rounding “has been shown to reduce mortality, medication errors, hospital length of stay, and hospital costs; improve staff and patient satisfaction; expand the health care team’s understanding of the patient’s plan of care; and increase both efficiency and perceptions of patient safety.”

Not your grandmother’s rounds.

In her article, “An Historical Review of Nurse–Physician Bedside Rounding,” Genevieve Beaird notes that while nurses rounding with physicians is not new, the nurse’s role today is vastly different from the early days. At that time, the nurse’s main concern was often preparing the stage, so to speak, for the physician’s appearance at the bedside. Here’s a quote from Dorothea Gothson, RN, in a 1913 issue of AJN:

“There is nothing more distressing to either patient or the earnest hardworking nurse than to be surprised by the attending doctors…. Equally annoying is the experience of patients and nurses being ready, waiting for the doctors, and their not appearing for one or two hours after the appointed time—perhaps not at all—thus […]

2019-03-22T08:39:03-04:00March 22nd, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Go to Top