Synopses & Reviews
Having spent decades in urban clinical practice while working simultaneously as an academic administrator, teacher, and writer, Frances Ward is especially well equipped to analyze the American health care system. In this memoir, she explores the practice of nurse practitioners through her experiences in Newark and Camden, New Jersey, and in north Philadelphia.
Ward views nurse practitioners as important providers of primary health care (including the prevention of and attention to the root causes of ill health) in independent practice and as equal members of professional teams of physicians, registered nurses, and other health care personnel. She describes the education of nurse practitioners, their scope of practice, their abilities to prescribe medications and diagnostic tests, and their overall management of patients’ acute and chronic illnesses. Also explored are the battles that nurse practitioners have waged to win the right to practice—battles with physicians, health insurance companies, and even other nurses.
The Door of Last Resort, though informed by Ward’s experiences, is not a traditional memoir. Rather, it explores issues in primary health care delivery to poor, urban populations from the perspective of nurse practitioners and is intended to be their voice. In doing so, it investigates the factors affecting health care delivery in the United States that have remained obscure throughout the current national debate
Review
"On Duty provides the much needed context to understand the rich and complicated history of nursing in New Jersey. This particular history also provides the background to think about how we might move forward as a profession in meeting the health care needs of those entrusted to our care. On Duty promises to make an important contribution to this emerging area of study."
Review
andquot;Frances Ward presents a detailed and intelligent history of the professional evolution of nursing. Historians of nursing and health care, and scholars of the history of professions, will find in
On Duty a lucid case study of social, political and legal forces that shape nursing. The depth of her connection to her subject matter, and her passion for her topic make this an important addition to the literature.
andquot;
Review
andquot;Frances Ward brings intelligence, first-hand experience, enthusiasm, and incredible depth of research to her work. On Duty is the sentinel publication on the evolution of nursing as a profession in New Jersey and makes a significant contribution to the literature on nursing history in the United States.andquot;
Review
andquot;Frances Ward's scholarly labor delivers a history with fidelity to the vision, intelligence, resourcefulness, and political awareness of nurses committed to advancing the discipline. No one is better suited to tell this story. Ward's role in the continuously evolving history of nursing in New Jersey has been a substantial one.andquot;
Review
andquot;Ward highlights organized nurses' role in aligning their political forces with other national and local women's movements in their struggle for equality. Her account of the legislative battles and their successes, as well as the individual risks taken, provides today's nurse activists insight and hope for the future of healthcare.andquot;
Review
andquot;The history of nursing in New Jersey provides a good benchmark from which to examine the history of nursing in other states. The author ends her well-researched book with a reflection on her personal experiences as a nurse practitioner and her freedom to be able to practice as an autonomous nursing professional. This book fills an important gap in the history of nursing.andquot;
Review
andquot;Ward covers a long chronological span and provides one part of a complicated history that examines how nurses gained power and used the legislative and professional status.andquot;
Review
“A wonderful personal story of what it means to be part of a disruptive movement that changed healthcare in the United States, making nurse practitioners the future of primary care.”
Review
"Ward makes a convincing case for a view of health care that relies on clinical skills and diagnosis with sensitivity to the differences among groups—against one that pursues only curing at the expense of thorough diagnosis and caring."
Synopsis
In 1886, Newark City Hospital opened a training school for nurses in New Jersey. With the dawn of a new century women began to demand rights that had been denied them, and nurses too demanded changes in health care and higher education. For the first time, On Duty offers a highly readable account of the struggle for professional autonomy by New Jersey nurses and reveals how their political and legislative battles mirrored the struggle of women throughout the country to redefine their roles in society.
Synopsis
This memoir describes the education of nurse practitioners, their scope of practice, their abilities to prescribe medications and diagnostic tests, and their overall management of patients’ acute and chronic illnesses. In doing so, it explores the issues in primary health care delivery to poor, urban populations and investigates the factors affecting health care delivery in the United States that have remained obscure throughout the current national debate.
About the Author
FRANCES WARD is the David R. Devereaux Chair of Nursing in the College of Health Professionsat Temple University. The founding dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, she also maintains a clinical practice serving urban residents.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Exhilarated, Exhausted :The Pioneers, 1882-1900
Stepping Out, Agitating: 1901-1920
Orphan in the Storm: 1920-1940
Building the Modern World: 1940-1960
Expanding Roles: 1960-1980
Autonomy: Into the Twenty-first Century
The Door of Last Resort
Notes
Index