Say Little, Do Much: Nursing, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 1. "Say Little, Do Much": Veils of Invisibility–Nursing Nuns

Chnptrr 1 "Say Little, Do Much" Viilsof I~zvisiDility -LVursi~~gLVu~~s Some years ago at a North American nursing conference I delivered a paper on religious nurses and their impact on the nursing profession and the health care system. Tl'hen I had finished, a Ivornan stood to make a statement. She told the coilfererlce that she tvas of Boston Irish Catholic stock. She had ~vorked as lmth a 1)edsidenurse and a seilior adrrlirlistrator at a nurnher of Catholic hospitals o~vnedand rrlailaged by sisters. Yet ~vhen she undertook her MBA and focused her major paper on Ivornen in seilior health care rnanagernent, she had fo~md none. The literature told her there Ivere none; she analyzed this deficiency from a ferrliilist perspectit -e and duly received a high grade. After lleariilg rny paper she realized her error -the tvornen tvere there, she'd e\-enbeer1tvorlting for thern at the time. Yet, sornehotv,she had not beer1able to see thern. In ~vhat follo~vs I focus oil this blind spot. I look closely at religious nurses, their tvorlt, and its impact, airrliilg to integrate the history of religious and secular nurses into the story of the errlergeilce of professional nursing. The irlteiltioil is neither critical rlor celebratory. The fact that religious ilursing is argued to ha\-ebeen formative of professiorlal nursing ill profound and far-reaching Ivays is not iilteilded to pro\-idea ratioilale for the "return" to a religious or spiritual basis for nursing practice. It is historical ol>servation.Nor are the religious nurses, tvith their potverf~ll vocational imperati\-es,blarrled for subsequent dilerrlrrlas in the professionalizatioi1 of nursing -for its poor pay, its lo~vly professional status, its gerldered character. Again, the vocational origin of respectalde nursing is llistorical obser\-ation-it cannot be escaped. Neither are nineteenth-century religious nurses argued to be ferrliilist in any tvay- latent, nascent, or crypto. Religious life Ivas not about iildi- \-idualsbut about cornrnuilities of tvornen.These Ivornen did not care for franchise or ~vorlting conditioils. They Ivere on God's rnission, and their spiritual traiiliilg enabled them to turn llardsllip and ad\-ersityinto spiritual exercises in ol>edienceand humility. Necessity made them rrlotllers of invention. Moreot-er,in the United States a good proportior1 of these 2 Chapter 1 Ivornen tvere European. The battles and preoccupations of their Protestant sisters tvere a ~vorld alvay from their daily lit-esas irrlrrligrarltnuns. But despite the eradication of self through total obedience striven for by religious Ivornen,despite their spiritual practices perforrrled to achiet-e Christian perfectioil through this erasure, and finally, despite their obedience to clergy and the narrow confines of religious life, these tvornen constituted a po~verfulsocial rnovernent. They tvere siilglerrlirlded rnissioilaries ~vhose faith in God's tvill and belief in the miraculous enal>led thern to achieve far rrlore than any group of indi\-idualIvornen could e\-er ha\-e accomplished. They tvere the rrlearls to the creation of a Catholic ~vorld in the Netv Tl'orld, and the foundations they laid for the tvork of all Ivornen in the pastoral dorrlairl has never been subject to the scholarly scrutiny it desert-es. I appi-oacll this subject matter as a nursing historial1 of Irish Catholic backgro~md, a l>ackgroundthat I belie\-e equipped rrle to recognize traces of Catholic culture, even ~vhen rerno\-edfrorrl its doctrirlal context. As a student nurse (arrned tvith a history degree) in a public secular hospital, I tvas often struck l>ythe religiosity of nursing trainiilg. The !\.eighty rrloralfrarnetvork and con\-entualrrlodel of practice under tvhich so rnany prograrrls operated tvere, in rny \-ie~v, ~ulpleasant rerrlirlders of rny convent schooling. But I Ivas even rrlore struck by a general lack of recogrlitiorl of this legac!; even as tve registered nurses in Australia in the 1980s Ivere still called "sister" and in sorrle hospitals expected to Ivear veils. Furthermore, rny Irish sensil>ilitiestvere offended l>y the osteilsible Eilglislliless of nursing history. How did the story of rrloderil nursing and hospital reforrrl becorrle an Eilglisll one? In Australia the old nursing scllools all proudly laid clairrl to their Nightingale heritage, and the Irnperial flag-tvaving that once upon a time accorrlparlied this allegiance included the exclusion of Irish Catholic girls. Catholic girls had their otvn hospitals -St. \'incent's or Rlater Misericordia- hospitals seldorrl rrlerltioiled in the nursing histories. But it seerrled to rrle that at least in these hospitals the title "sister" and the veils rrlade sense...