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

Melanie Beals Goan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807832111 | ISBN-13: 978-0807832110 | Publication Date: May 22, 2008 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

"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

"Enmeshes the personal and public lives of this charismatic figure and brings her to life."
-Nursing Ethics

"Goan succeeds in extracting Breckinridge's life and impact from her carefully constructed public image."
-Journal of American History

"Highly recommended."
-Midwest Book Review

"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

"Highly recommended."
-Choice

About the Author

Melanie Beals Goan teaches history at the University of Kentucky.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1 edition (May 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807832111
• ISBN-13: 978-0807832110
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than nursing, March 28, 2010

By 

Laura Legon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service and Rural Health in Appalachia (Hardcover)

An excellent, well-written books that's more than a history of the Frontier Nursing Service, but also an introduction to a real character and her times: Mary Breckinridge, a flawed smoking, cursing heroine who brought much-needed medical attention to a remote community, the patients, who led tough lives and resented the well-bred Breckinridge's condescension towards them, during a period in America still rife with open racism and conflict. an absorbing and interesting history that is well-written, not too dry and academic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Breckinridge, August 13, 2009

By 

H. Curless - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service and Rural Health in Appalachia (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, having grown up in this area, my parents knew her and I became inspired to be a nurse from her work.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Her story is one of altruism and care, December 8, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service and Rural Health in Appalachia (Hardcover)

Many city dwellers think nothing of having doctors at easy access. This was not true for rural dwellers in Appalachia in the early twentieth century. "Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service and Rural Health in Appalachia" tells the story of Mary Breckinridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing service, who for several years provided aid and medical care to those in need throughout this backwoods region. Her heartwarming story is one of altruism and care, making "Mary Breckinridge" highly recommended.