Jaime Lapeyre, University of Toronto

Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania

Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 5:00 pm EDT

Time: 12:00-1:30pm

Location: 2U Conference Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall, University of Pennsylvania


Abstract: Rising public health needs witnessed during the post-WWI period increased awareness within both governmental and non-governmental agencies of the role of the nurse in providing care in the area of public health. In combination with the creation of a broad desire for international collaboration and peace during this period, this increase in public health needs led to the creation of new international health organizations and new training programs for public health nurses. Several American organizations also provided support and aid towards the training of public health nurses in Europe during this period, including the American Red Cross (ARC); the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), the Committee for Devastated France; and the newly formed League of Red Cross Societies.


Often the aims of these organizations differed in relation to their desire to provide relief and to maintain standards in the training of public health workers. In the USA, several disputes had emerged between nurse leaders regarding standards of nursing education in relation to the work of the ARC during the post-WWI period. As a result of these debates the RF agreed to support the completion of a survey of nursing education in the USA, commonly referred to as the Goldmark Report. Just prior to the publication of this Report in 1923, the Foundation’s interests in this field spread to Europe. American nurse leader Annie Goodrich, who was closely connected to the Goldmark study and had staunchly opposed short courses for the training of public health nurses, was later asked by the RF to complete a survey of nursing education in Europe. This paper examines Goodrich’s connection with the RF in the 1920s, specifically the influence of her visits to Europe in 1925, on the future of Foundation support to public health nursing education on this continent.


For more information or to RSVP please email nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu or call 215-898-4502.