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Chnptrr 8 The Twentieth Century ' E U P Y ~ Day Lfr Got Smnllrr" IVhen Elizabeth Ann Seton,follndress of the American Sisters of Charit); struggled ~vithher call fi-orrl God during the first decade of the nineteenth century, she could scarcely ha\-e drearrled that l>ythe century's end Catholic Ivornen tvould ha\-ebuilt the largest health care nettvorlt in the country. By 1917 their hospitals accounted for half the Xrrlericail health care systerr1.l But a century after Seton, Catholic sisters were not the only tvornen to perforrrl nursing tvorlt ~vith dignity and diligence.The stage Ivas by then crotvded ~vith Protestarlt religious nurses -the Xnglicall nuns and the Lutheran and Rlethodist deaconesses, and great nurnbers of secular nurses, led by educated, articulate, and political tvornen. Of this final group a great deal is ltno~vn, and their story has successfully ol>scuredthat of the religious nurses. A 1 1 earlier versions of nursing Ivere to fall under the shadow of Florerlce Nightingale and l>edisrrlissed -the religious nurses as unprofessioilal and the nonreligious nurses (the poor Sarah Garnps) as l>eneathcontempt." But how important were the religious nurses- Catholic sister-nurses, Xrlglicarl sisterhoods, and Rletllodist and Lutheran deacoilesses-to the shaping of rrloderil nursing? To anslver that question it l>ecornes necessary to move l>eyondthe nursing legends and enter the gerldered religious dorrlaiil of Christian charity and the n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t ~ European diaspora. The first nurses outside Catholic Europe tvere the tvornen of eighteenth-cent~11-yNetv France-Jeanne nllailce and Marguerite D'Yowille Ivere the piorleers of nursing in the Netv Mbrld.:' In the Xnglophone ~vorld it Ivas the Irish nuns -Sistersof Rlercy and Sisters of Charity. There Ivere also 11011-Irishn ~ m s such as Elizabeth Seton, the Xrrlericarl convert ~vho founded the Xrrlericail Sisters of Charity- but rnany of her nuns tvere Irish too. The efforts of these tvornen are conspicuously absent from accounts of nursing history and the history of tvornen and ~voi-k. By ignoring these Ivornen tve are ignoring the tvay rrloderrl care of the siclt carrle into being. M'e are displacing it fi-orrlits place ~vithin a broad pastoral rrlissioil arrloilg the poor of the nineteenth century. Care of the sick Ivas l>otha skilled 132 Chapter 8 practice and an evangelizing opportuility. The nursing nuns tvei-e a hybrid forrrl-pragrrlatic and ~vorldl!; \-ocation-drivenand deeply religious at the sarrle tirne. It Ivas this hyl>ridforrrl of life, pious ilursing, that crossed such a sigilificailt boundary, the bo~mdary bettveen the secular and the religious dornains, and coloilized netv territory -gerldered professional territory. This book has talterl up the hyl>ridpositioilirlg of ilirleteenth-century nursing to exarrliile the relatioilsllip bettveen \-ocationalethos and the errlergeilce of a role for Ivornen as part of a professiorlal ~voi-k force. This aspect of nursing history has receit-ed \-erylittle attention from either ~vornen's studies scholars or ferrliilist historians. But hotv did tvornen begirl to develop professioilal lit-esin the rliileteeiltll century -tvhat shift in "rnentalit6" occurred? Hotv irrlportarlt Ivas care of the siclt in l>ridging this distance l>et~veen the llorrle as the ~vornen's sphere and the hospital or home of the sick?How irrlportarlt Ivere the nursing nuns in opening up this space for tvornen?Tl'hat is at issue here is the errlergerlce of a rrlass professiorl for tvornen and the social/ethical cllallerlges that this role trarlsforrrlatioil occasioned. The persolla of the professiorlal Ivornan tvas a neio creation, and for Ivornen to l>eabroad in the tvorld as autonornous agents they required protectioil- if not of the \-eil,at least of its equi\-alentill decorurn and \-ocationall>earing.It is in this area of professional/vocatioilal shaping that the influence of the nursing iluns is so critical, and the continuities in training and ethical shaping from the cloister to the nurses' horne becorrle intelligil>le.The persolla of the new nurse emerged from this hyl>ridpious and pragrrlatic space corrlplete ~viththe e\-angelicaland corporeal duties of the nursing 11~11. Nursing's carirlg ethic tvas ernbedded in gerldered religious practices. That said, these gerldered religious practices also built the health systemstvithin ~vhich nurses still~vorlt. Even today for nurses the derrlaildsand arnhiguities of l>eiilg,as Susan Re\-erby put it, "ordered to care in a society that does not d u e caring," rerrlairl overtvhelrning. This book has been an attempt...

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