Frontier Nursing in Appalachia: History, Organization and the Changing Culture of Care

This book provides a historical analysis of the Frontier Nursing Services in the Eastern Appalachians of the United States, as well as a review of the oral history tradition of former frontier and non-frontier nurses. The data was gathered from 2003 to 2007, and the historical part covers the years 1900 to 1970. 

The objective of the study presented here was to conduct interviews with former frontier and non-frontier nurses in order to better understand their family and personal relationships, and the experiences that motivated their career choices. These interviews also give a voice to the working and middle-class women of the FNS. The emerging themes include moral inhabitability in work/education environments, the generational mix, nurse-physician and male-female relationships at the workplace, the role of technology, humanitarian versus financial rewards, and the public image of nurses. 

In addition, the book examines how the FNS shifted froma community/grass-roots structure to the corporate/business model of healthcare delivery employed today. In closing, it stresses the importance of explorig past nursing in order to better grasp present nursing. It also represents a testament to the professional work and vital contributions of frontier nurses.

About the Author: Edie West, Ph.D., ACNS-BC, RN is a Professor of Nursing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). She joined IUP in Fall 2006. She completed her Ph.D. at Bangor University, Wales, United Kingdom in 2008 and has maintained an Advanced Practice Clinical Nurse Specialist-Basic Care Certification since 2004. She began her nursing career with a Bachelor’s in Nursing from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA in 1984. Professor West’s research and scholarly writings stem from her interests in and passions for nursing ethics, history, public/community health and international/global nursing, and has resulted in professional recognition and solicitation to serve as both reviewer and editor for several scholarly national and international journals of professional nursing, including the Journal of Nursing Education, Nurse Education in Practice and International Nursing Review. Dr. West’s most recent award was in recognition for her scholarly work entitled, ‘Constructivist Theory and Concept Based Learning in Professional Nursing Ethics:  Implications for Nurse Educators’ published in Teaching Ethics (doi: 10.5840/tej201633129). She currently serves as a Director for the Southwestern Association of Occupational Health Nurses (SWAOHN) and as Newsletter Editor and Webmaster for the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing's Zeta Lambda Chapter.