Author Archives: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing

It’s a Small World: Lessons from Ebola and MERS

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CDC mock Ebola Treatment Unit (photo credit: Cleopatra Adedeji)

By Emma MacAllister, BSN

The most recent Ebola outbreak all began in West Africa with one 18-month-old boy in the remote village of Meliandou, Guinea. From there the outbreak exploded into a global crisis that claimed over 11,000 lives worldwide and counting. An inability to halt the virus’ spread left health officials alarmed. Yet, in the Fall of last year, experts in the United States were confident in the nation’s health system’s ability to control an outbreak if Ebola crossed our borders.  We possessed the ability, resources and technology to effectively treat the ill and stop the virus in its tracks.  This attitude proved overoptimistic.

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The Affordable Care Act and States’ wrong (The Public’s Health)

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Image Courtesy of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing.

July 30th marks the 50-year anniversary of the signing into law, by President Lyndon Johnson the Medicare and Medicaid legislation; legislation which profoundly opened up health care access to millions of Americans. Before we celebrate too loudly about this singular achievement which has improved the lives of our citizens both young and old, let’s remember that there are still many Americans left without adequate access to health care.

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Children’s Health and Welfare: Rhetoric vs Reality

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Image courtesy of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing

By Cynthia Connolly, PhD, RN, PNP, FAAN

Much has changed for American children during the past half century, a great deal of it for the better.  Vaccines, for example, reduced morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases such as whooping-cough, diphtheria that once felled entire communities of children. Continue reading →

When The Crisis Fades, Remember the Nurses

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Marian Moser jones Quote

By Marian Moser Jones, PhD, MPH

The fall of 1914, much like the fall of 2014, witnessed an urgent call for American nurses and doctors to join humanitarian missions involving diseases across the globe. Unprecedented modern warfare, not an unprecedented epidemic, was the cause of the crisis a hundred years ago.

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Ebola, Epidemics, and Nursing Care

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Medical staff treating Ebola victim in West Africa (Photo Credit: Sylvain Cherkaoui)

By Connie Ulrich, PhD, RN and Julie Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN

The World Health Organization has now estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 new cases of Ebola a week are projected within two months if more is not done to combat this emerging crisis.   Two health care workers have now been diagnosed in the United States, and several other providers have contracted the disease abroad and returned to the US for treatment.

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