Listening to Past Leaders in Medicine and Nursing

During and immediately after World War II, a time of growth and development was experienced by medicine and nursing practice and education. An influential book titled The Education of Nurses: Historical Foundations and Modern Trends¹ was written by Isabel Maitland Stewart, then professor of nursing education and director of the division of nursing education at Columbia University in New York. Stewart warned that a 2-tiered system of staff nurses, nurse managers, and educators would be a mistake for the profession. She preferred educators and leaders to be first highly skilled in clinical practice, and she understood that it was essential to keep the best and brightest nurses working in direct patient care.

She also understood the importance of the care of the social, sentient, and embodied person. Physiology itself is housed in the social body. She was prescient about the future need for patient care, as the following set...