Arlene Keeling, University of Virginia
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
Information/RSVP: nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu or 215-898-4502
Abstract: This talk describes and analyzes the nurses' role in responding to the 1918 influenza epidemic in Philadelphia, the city with the highest flu mortality rate in the United States, focusing specifically on the response of hospital nurses and the Philadelphia Visiting Nurses Society during the months of September to December, 1918, and considering nurses' roles within the social, political, medical and nursing context of the period. Issues of race, class and gender are considered as the city addressed the epidemic in the midst of a severe nursing shortage while maintaining segregated facilities and at times demonstrating cross class cooperation.