Posted: May 11th, 2022

Mary C. Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service

Study Bay Coursework Assignment Writing Help

• Laura J. Roberson

Abstract

This paper explores the life and legacy of Mary C. Breckinridge, the ingenious drive behind the Frontier Nursing Service. No matter good hardship and heartache, Mary under no circumstances faltered in her need to improve the properly being care of every teen. As an alternative of seeing the daunting job as an insurmountable obstacle, Mary often appeared for strategies to make optimistic change. Statistics current the unbelievable contribution that Mary and the Frontier Nursing Service made to the properly being and well-being of the kids and households of japanese Kentucky. In addition to, Breckinridge was instrumental in bringing nurse midwifery to the US. This paper gives a snapshot of the contributions that Mary C. Breckinridge made to the profession of nursing and properly being take care of rural women and children.

Establishing A Legacy: Mary C. Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service

Whereas no person will keep endlessly, a person can reside on by way of the legacy they depart and the have an effect on that it has made and can proceed to make on the planet. Mary C. Breckinridge, the founding father of The Frontier Nursing Service, left a legacy that is nonetheless influencing lives and nursing apply nearly 50 years previous her lack of life.

Events Important To Enchancment of the Frontier Nursing Service

Born proper into a widely known family, the Breckinridge determine provided many options and open-doors for Mary. Nonetheless, Clifton and Katherine, Mary’s dad and mother, weren’t as monetarily affluent as the the rest of the Breckinridges. They taught their children that “personal qualities just like honesty, integrity, and restore to others, fairly than an enormous financial fortune, determined their value” (Goan, 2008, p. 22). In addition to, southern custom impressed youthful females to be “demure and self-sacrificing, specializing in the desires of others” (Goan, 2008, p. 23). Mary’s adventurous and daring character, blended with the have an effect on of her family and society left her determined to utilize her giftedness to help others.

After the untimely lack of lifetime of her first husband, Mary spent the summer season season of 1907 on the Elisabeth McRae Institute, a home for girls in North Carolina. Experiences there prompted Mary to enter nursing school at St. Luke Hospital in New York Metropolis. She graduated with honors and handed her state boards in 1910.

Mary married her second husband in October of 1911. She turned a touring lecturer with the US Kids’s Bureau which allowed her to see the predicament of rural mother’s first hand. On the end of her time interval with the bureau, Mary went to France to help with reconstruction after the tip of World Battle I. With the financial backing of her mother, Mary helped improve the properly being of malnourished children. All through this time, Mary developed the government skills that may Help her with effectively working the Frontier Nursing Service. She developed a visiting service in France that provided healthcare to males, women, and children in her territory. In a single yr, she elevated her area of accountability from one village to 72.

Mary returned to the US, divorced her second husband, and one month later, her mother died. As quickly as as soon as extra she was confronted with the alternative of what to do collectively along with her life. Her experience in France and her contact with British nurse-midwives, prompted her to consider the possibilities of an similar need in the US, notably with rural mothers and children. Entry to physicians in rural areas was practically nonexistent. Typically the closest doctor may be 100 miles away. Pregnant women have been Helped by untrained members of the household or neighbors as soon as they’ve been capable of ship or gave begin alone. These circumstances considerably concerned Mary, inspiring her to develop a plan to provide low-cost care to rural mothers and infants. She submitted a proposal to the American Child Nicely being Affiliation, which included free properly being take care of every teen inside her group’s territory. Mothers would moreover get hold of properly being care. Central to her plan was a model new path for nursing, the expert nurse-midwife. These caregivers have been expert in every nursing apply and specialised obstetric care. They could cope with common deliveries nevertheless would have entry to a health care provider for troublesome births (Hostutler, Kennedy, Mason, & Schorr, 2000).

The Frontier Nursing Service

When making the alternative of the place to seek out her proposed properly being service, she was drawn to the plight of the people of Appalachia, notably japanese Kentucky. After teaching and receiving certification by way of the British Central Midwives, Mary returned to Kentucky in 1925. She employed her first two employees, promising them $150 per 30 days plus dwelling payments. The first clinic opened in Hyden, Kentucky in September 1925, adopted by six additional outpost-nursing amenities. The nurse-midwives that staffed these amenities held clinics and made house calls by the use of horseback to supply dwelling care. Each coronary heart served a median of 250 households. Furthermore tending to the administration of the group and seeing victims, a whole lot of Mary’s time inside the early years was spent elevating funds. In 1927, Breckinridge modified the determine of her group to the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS). Breckinridge raised money for a twelve-bed hospital that was devoted on June 26, 1928. It turned the center of the FNS medical system. In November 1939, Mary established the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery to supply the necessity for expert midwifes. The school has been open since that time and has continued in order so as to add additional ranges along with a nurse practitioner program.

No matter drought, famine, the good despair and wars, Breckinridge championed the purpose for the Appalachian people and via effort and endurance she developed a deeper understanding of the space’s points. By her lack of life in May of 1965, Mary raised nearly ten million dollars for the FNS and left an endowment of larger than two million dollars. All through her time of administration, the FNS provided service to nearly 58,000 victims, provided 248,000 inoculations, delivered 14,500 infants, and lowered the maternal lack of life value in japanese Kentucky, from the finest inside the nation to correctly beneath the nationwide frequent (Frontier Nursing Service, 2014). When a mid-wife in Nashville, Tennessee was requested if she knew of Mary Breckinridge and if Mary’s work had affected her in any methodology, she talked about, “Mary was an eternal optimist working inside the accepted social norms of her time, nevertheless determined to make her world a larger place. She paved the method through which for all of us that may comply along with her occasion. Due to her administration, I’ve had the probability to pursue a extremely rewarding occupation in midwifery” (T. Bruce, personal communication, October 4, 2014). Mary Breckinridge created a legacy whose ripple outcomes will proceed to impact japanese Kentucky, the US and the world for a really very long time to come back again.

References

Frontier Nursing Service (2014) Historic previous of Mary Breckinridge. Retrieved from

https://www.frontiernursing.org

Goan, M. (2008). Mary breckinridge: The frontier nursing service and rural properly being in appalachia. Chapel Hill: The School of North Carolina Press.

Hostutler, J., Kennedy, M.S., Mason, D., & Schorr, T.M. (2000). Nurses and fashions of apply. American Journal of Nursing, 100(2), 82-83. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezproxy.mtsu.edu/sp-3.13.0b/ovidweb.cgi?