Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service and Rural Health in Appalachia

Commendation Quotes: Although the Frontier Nursing Service was and is quite well known, its founder is less well known. Goan makes a convincing case for the importance of Breckinridge's life, arguing that she was an influential innovator who was fully capable of attracting supporters and leading others.--Joan E. Lynaugh, Professor Emerita in the School of Nursing, Director Emerita of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of PennsylvaniaReview Quotes: "Goan succeeds in extracting Breckinridge's life and impact from her carefully constructed public image."-"Journal of American History"Review Quotes: "Highly recommended."-"Choice"Review Quotes: "Goan does a fine job placing Breckinridge, her life, her ideas, and her achievements in their historical and cultural contexts. . . . Enlarges our understanding of Appalachia, social reform, and scientific medicine in the twentieth century. . . . [The] book will be embraced eagerly by medical and lay readers. Historians of Appalachia, social reform, and the rise of scientific medicine . . . nurse midwives and nurse practitioners . . . [and] classroom settings including courses on women and medicine, the history of the US south, and the history of medicine."-"Nursing History Review"Review Quotes: "Highly recommended."-"Midwest Book Review"Review Quotes: "Goan provides a well-researched historical account that draws from numerous primary and secondary sources to describe Breckenridge's successes and failings as a reformer."--"Journal of Appalachian Studies"Review Quotes: "Throughout her carefully documented book, Goan engages with the works of other scholars of nursing, women and reform, scientific medicine, and Appalachian studies."--"Journal of Southern History"Review Quotes: "Enmeshes the personal and public lives of this charismatic figure and brings her to life."--"Nursing Ethics"Review Quotes: "Highly recommended."--"Midwest Book Review"Review Quotes: "Highly recommended."--"Choice"Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Review Quotes: "Well written and well researched. . . . Appropriate for scholars in the history of medicine, nursing, labor, and women and should be required reading for students in each of these disciplines. . . . Highly recommend[ed]."--"Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"Review Quotes: Highly recommended.--"Midwest Book Review"Review Quotes: Throughout her carefully documented book, Goan engages with the works of other scholars of nursing, women and reform, scientific medicine, and Appalachian studies.--"Journal of Southern History"Commendation Quotes: Goan's intimate narrative of the life of Mary Breckinridge is a well-written, intriguing story and a pleasure to read.--Sandra Barney, Lock Haven UniversityReview Quotes: Enmeshes the personal and public lives of this charismatic figure and brings her to life.--"Nursing Ethics"Review Quotes: Goan provides a well-researched historical account that draws from numerous primary and secondary sources to describe Breckenridge's successes and failings as a reformer.--"Journal of Appalachian Studies"Review Quotes: Highly recommended.--"Choice"Review Quotes: Well written and well researched. . . . Appropriate for scholars in the history of medicine, nursing, labor, and women and should be required reading for students in each of these disciplines. . . . Highly recommend[ed].--"Register of the Kentucky Historical Society"Publisher Marketing: In 1925 Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965) founded the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), a public health organization in eastern Kentucky providing nurses on horseback to reach families who otherwise would not receive health care. Through this public health organization, she introduced nurse-midwifery to the United States and created a highly successful, cost-effective model for rural health care delivery that has been replicated throughout the world. In this first comprehensive biography of the FNS founder, Melanie Beals Goan provides a revealing look at the challenges Breckinridge faced as she sought reform and the contradictions she embodied. Goan explores Breckinridge's perspective on gender roles, her charisma, her sense of obligation to live a life of service, her eccentricity, her religiosity, and her application of professionalized, science-based health care ideas. Highly intelligent and creative, Breckinridge also suffered from depression, was by modern standards racist, and fought progress as she aged--sometimes to the detriment of those she served. Breckinridge optimistically believed that she could change the world by providing health care to women and children. She ultimately changed just one corner of the world, but her experience continues to provide powerful lessons about the possibilities and the limitations of reform.

Contributor Bio:  Goan, Melanie Beals Melanie Beals Goan teaches history at the University of Kentucky.