Chapter 4: How Practical/Vocational Nursing Evolved: 1836 to the Present

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical figures, landmark legislation, organizations, and educational milestones in the evolution of practical/vocational nursing.

First School of Nursing

Founded in Kaiserswerth, Germany in 1836 by the Lutheran Order of Deaconesses under supervisor Theodor Fleidner, with Florence Nightingale as its most famous pupil.

Florence Nightingale

Famous nurse born in Florence, Italy, who studied in Kaiserswerth, served in the Crimean War, and established the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas Hospital in 1860.

Mary Seacole

Jamaican nurse honored for building a Crimean lodging house with her own money and using natural plant medicines to treat cholera, yellow fever, malaria, and diarrhea.

Nightingale Training School

A 1-year nursing program established in 1860 at St. Thomas Hospital in England with strict admission standards emphasizing high moral character and intelligence.

Pittsburgh Infirmary

The first formal training program for nurses in the United States, established in 1849 with the help of Pastor Fliedner.

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Superintendent of Nurses during the Civil War who recruited female nurses under age 30 and established the first hospital for the mentally ill.

Ballard School

The first formal practical nurse program opened in 1892 in Brooklyn, NY, offering a 3-month course focusing on home health care.

Thompson School for Practical Nursing

Practical nursing school opened in 1907 in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Household Nursing Association School of Attendant Nursing

School of attendant nursing established in 1918.

Henry Street Settlement

Institution founded in 1893 in New York by Lillian Wald to teach basic cleanliness and control of communicable diseases.

Lillian Wald

Social worker and nursing graduate who founded the Henry Street Settlement in 1893 and co-formed the National Emergency Committee on Nursing during WWI.

Smith Hughes Act of 1917

Legislation passed in 1917 that provided federal money for developing additional schools of practical nursing.

Minneapolis Girls Vocational High School

Location where the first high school vocational/practical nursing program opened in 1919.

Bolton Act

Legislation passed in 1943 that served as the basis for creating the Cadet Nurse Corps.

Joint Committee on Practical Nurses and Auxiliary Workers in Nursing Services

1949 committee that recommended using the title 'licensed practical nurse' and established that LPNs practice under RN supervision.

Women's Armed Forces Act

Act signed by President Truman in 1948 during a period when military numbers were at an all-time low.

National Black Nurses Association (NBNA)

Nonprofit entity established in 1971 to advocate for Black nurses and ensure access to quality health care for persons of color.

Registered Care Technologist (RCT)

Unsuccessful role created by the American Medical Association in 1989 involving 1- and 2-year training programs to ease the nursing shortage.

Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP)

Caregivers hired in the 1990s to deliver patient care, which prompted legal responsibility concerns among LPNs/LVNs and RNs.

NCLEX-PN

First computerized adaptive testing examination introduced in 1994 to provide individualized licensing tests for practical nursing graduates.