Learning Objective #1: Discuss the assimilation of nineteenth century "lady nurses" into developing US hospital training schools

Learning Objective #2: Explore the nineteenth century recruitment of British nurses as a prototype for twentieth century programs to recruit immigrant nurses

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During the nineteenth century, Philadelphia became a leading medical center in the United States. Hospital boards sought to elevate the status of their institutions through linkages to the Nightingale model, and eagerly recruited British lady nurses to administer Philadelphia hospitals and training schools. In England, upper class protégées of Florence Nightingale had established respectability for nursing through their assertion that their elevated social status and moral superiority could transform the corrupt environment of the hospital. However, in England, unbeknownst to the American hospital trustees, lady nurses were often appointed as superintendents because of their social status rather than their skill in nursing or their aptitude for administration. Alice Fisher was one of the first British nurse superintendents to be recruited. Her legendary success in the reform of the Philadelphia Almshouse, and resultant premature death, further fueled the drive to recruit British nurses. Upon their arrival in the United States, many of the British nurses found the culture to be alien and hostile. The British tradition of privilege based on social status was often unacceptable in egalitarian environment of nineteenth century America. Many British nurses were ill prepared for the hard work expected of them by physicians and hospital trustees. In addition, many Philadelphia natives harbored anti-British sentiments stemming from Revolutionary War battles that were fought only a century before. It remained for the second generation of British immigrant nurses, the students and colleagues of first nurses recruited to Philadelphia, to leave a lasting mark on American nursing. The gradual process of their Americanization and adaptation to the dominant culture, rendered them able to make significant and lasting contribute to American nursing in ways that were embraced by American colleagues. Lessons from the recruitment and socialization of nineteenth century British nurses can inform current attempts to recruit nurses from abroad.