Yesterday, my nursing classes proved they were good for something...teaching me about awesome nurses in history.
Public health nursing was practically brought into existence because of the work of Lillian Wald.. hell, she invented the term "public health nursing". This woman literally jumped from roof-top to roof-top in New York to get to underprivileged families and provide them with the health care services they desperately needed but couldn't afford. This woman should have gotten a cape..a really long excellent cape.
She even worked with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) to start the first insurance payment plan for nursing services. Her stance was that if poorer people could get access to quality health care (or in this case, health care at all), they would be more productive in society and would be overall healthier for longer (crazy concept, i know...). And guess what happened? MetLife found that they actually SAVED money by insuring that these people received nursing care because it helped to prevent diseases, injuries, and mortality.
She also worked with the American Red Cross, fought for better tenement living conditions in the city, believed in women's suffrage, supported various efforts to improve race relations and solve racial injustices, and wrote two books: The House on Henry Street and Windows on Henry Street. So, like I said....KICK ASS.
You are right. Lillian Wald took nursing to such a level that we still aspire to reach that level today. I didn't realize that nurses could have such potentials for creating massive changes until I read about her. Makes me proud of being a future nurse.
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