Advancements in the Nursing Profession
The nursing profession holds a special place in the history of the American healthcare system. The nurses are frontline healthcare service providers and work in varied fields and settings as members of the largest healthcare profession. This article evaluates the historical contributions made by a nurse specifically, Adda Eldredge in the advancement of the nursing profession in the US. While most nurses work in acute healthcare settings like hospitals, their skills, and expertise spread beyond the walls of hospitals. Nurses enhance the health of people and millions of people turn to nurses for counseling, health service, healthcare education, and delivery of primary healthcare services, and therefore nurses are vital links in maintaining a cutting-edge healthcare system.
Adda Eldredge was a nursing leader in the registration movement and was a president of thttps://essaygroom.com/narrative-counseling-theory-case-study-analysis/he American Nurses Association (ANA) and is a member of the ANA Hall of Fame. She was born in 1865 in Fond du Lac Wisconsin. Cooper (1988) reports that she gained national and international recognition for her efforts to upgrade nursing education and enhance sound nursing legislation practice. Eldredge was enlisted by the Illinois State Nurse Association in 1899 for her help to secure passage of a nurse practise act (ANA, 2020). In 1907, Eldredge received a Certificate of Registration One under the new Illinois nursing practice act (Cooper, 1988). Eldredge became the interstate secretary of ANA, National League of the Nursing Education, and American Journal of Nursing in 1917.
Eldredge was loaned to the Committee on Nursing of the Council of National defence to help the nursing student reserve program during the Second World War. She was a member of the Sigma Theta tau and served on the board of directors of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and as an official delegate of ANA to four ICN congresses. Additionally, the Wisconsin Nurses Association recognized her through a scholarship fund in her name to help nurses to further their education.
Eldredge made great contributions to the nursing and healthcare system in the US. She worked as a private duty nurse like the majority of the trained nurses of the same era (Cooper, 1991). Firstly, she was an instructor at St. Lukes from 1907 to 1014, where she worked tirelessly to achieve support for the passage of the Nurse Practice Act, establishing a strong interest in legislative problems concerning nursing practice. Secondly, Eldredge’s contribution to nursing practice and education received national recognition during her time as the first vice president of the ANA from 1913 to 1915 and subsequently as the president from 1922 to 1926.
Eldredge made great contributions. According to AAHN (2018), Eldredge’s work improved the nursing practice and nursing education through the establishment of high standards of education for nursing schools through the accreditation and inspection of the schools, the employment of well-prepared faculty, shorter working hours and longer vacations for students, as well as affiliation programs. In 1921, she was invited to return to her home in Wisconsin as Director of the Bureau of Nursing Education (BNE) (Strout, 2012). Eldredge was one of the participants of the Goldmark Report on Private Duty Nursing.
The contributions made by Adda Eldredge in the nursing profession holds a special place in the history of the American healthcare system. As one of the frontline healthcare service providers, Eldredge made great contributions such as; helping the nursing students reserve program during the Second World War and working tirelessly to achieve support for the passage of the Nurse Practice Act, thereby establishing a strong interest in legislative problems concerning nursing practice. Consequently, Eldredge contributions helped to improve the provision of better healthcare services in the hospitals and beyond hospital walls. Nurses like Eldredge are critical links in sustaining a cutting-edge healthcare system.
References
American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN). (2018). Adda Eldredge 1864-1955. Retrieved from: https://www.aahn.org/eldredge.
ANA. (2020). Adda Eldredge (1865-1955) 1986 Inductee. Available from: http://ojin.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/AboutANA/Honoring-Nurses/NationalAwardsProgram/HallofFame/19761984/eldrax5535.html
Cooper, S. (1988). Adda Eldredge. In: Bullough, V.L., Church, O.M., & Stein, A.P. (Eds.). American nursing: A biographical dictionary. New York: Garland.
Cooper, S. (1991). Adda Eldredge 1864-1955. Nursing Matters. Madison, WI: Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Strout, K. (2012). Wellness promotion and the Institute of Medicine’s future of nursing report: Are nurses ready? Holistic Nursing Practice 26(3), 129-136.