Learning Objective #1: Describe the manifestations of cultural competency in 19th century nursing practice

Learning Objective #2: Discuss the implications of applying a contemporary model for analysis of historical data

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Nurse historians typically acknowledge the mid-nineteenth century as a crucial time in the development of modern nursing. Changing social contexts, industrialization, and wars pushed the development of nursing forward as a distinct profession with unique contributions to be made to patient care. To date, few attempts have been made to examine the data from mid-nineteenth century nursing efforts in light of current issues or frameworks that can be substantiated with historical descriptions. Cultural competency in nursing practice is one of the issues that has taken the stage over the last two decades, evolving as a professional mandate for the delivery of quality patient care to a multicultural global community.

A biographical case study, social history approach was used to examine the experiences of fourteen women who served as nurses during the Civil War (the earliest development of organized nursing in the United States). The research utilized primary and secondary sources at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, several State Historical Societies, and various University Library Collections. Primary sources included original handwritten letters, diaries, and memoirs by some of the nurses or their family members. Other primary sources included original documents from government organizations, newspapers, photographs, and published diaries or memoirs. Secondary sources included printed biographical information and modern nursing histories.

Findings of this project indicate that many concepts that have taken center stage during the last quarter century can, in fact, be found in historical sources. Although the context was different than the present global community, the concept of cultural competency was present in the care that mid-nineteenth century nurses delivered. Application of frameworks that define cultural competency in today's health care arena will be presented as they existed during the Civil War era in America.