No Place Like Home : A History of Nursing and Home Care in the United States

No Place Like Home sets out to determine why home care, despite its potential as a cost-effective alternative to institutional care, remains a marginalized experiment in care giving. Nurse and historian Karen Buhler-Wilkerson traces the history of home care from its nineteenth-century origins in organized visiting nurses' associations, through a time when professional home care nearly disappeared, on to the 1960s, when a new wave of home care gathered force as physicians, hospital managers, and policy makers responded to economic mandates. Buhler-Wilkerson links local ideas about the formation and function of home-based services to national events and health care agendas, and she gives special attention to care of the "dangerous" sick, particularly poor immigrants with infectious diseases, and the "uninteresting" sick -- those with chronic illnesses. No Place Like Home Sets Out To Determine Why Home Care, A Preferred, Rational, And Cost-effective Alternative To Institutional Care, Remains A Marginalized Experiment In Care Giving. Nurse-historian Karen Buhler-wilkerson Traces The History Of Home Care From Its Nineteenth-century Origins In Organized Visiting Nurses' Associations, Through A Time When Professional Home Care Nearly Disappeared, On To The 1960s, When A New Wave Of Home Care Gathered Force As Physicians, Hospital Managers, And Policy Makers Responded To Economic Mandates. Karen Buhler-wilkerson Is A Professor Of Community Health And Director Of The Center For The Study Of The History Of Nursing At The University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing.--book Jacket. Pt. 1. Inventing Home Care In The Nineteenth Century -- 1. Trained Nurses For The Sick Poor -- 2. Creating Their Own Domain : Ladies, Nurses, And The Sick Poor -- Pt. 2. The Work And Reality -- 3. Treatment Of Families In Which There Is Sickness -- 4. Caring In Its Proper Place : Race Relations At Home -- 5. Lillian Wald And The Invention Of Public Health Nursing -- Home Nursing Care--yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow : A Photo Essay -- Pt. 3. Management And Money -- 6. The Business Of Private Nursing -- 7. A Cautionary Tale : The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's Home Care Experiment -- Pt. 4. Reinventing Home Care In The Mid-twentieth Century -- 8. An Unchanging Purpose In A Changing World -- 9. Home Care Becomes The Fashion Again. Karen Buhler-wilkerson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 215-282) And Index. Winner of the Lavinia Dock Award from the American Association for the History of NursingHonorable Mention for the Association of American Publishers Professional/Scholarly Publishing Awards in Nursing and Allied HeathNo Place Like Home sets out to determine why home care, despite its potential as a cost-effective alternative to institutional care, remains a marginalized experiment in care giving. Nurse and historian Karen Buhler-Wilkerson traces the history of home care from its nineteenth-century origins in organized visiting nurses'associations, through a time when professional home care nearly disappeared, on to the 1960s, when a new wave of home care gathered force as physicians, hospital managers, and policy makers responded to economic mandates. Buhler-Wilkerson links local ideas about the formation and function of home-based services to national events and health care agendas, and she gives special attention to care of the'dangerous'sick, particularly poor immigrants with infectious diseases, and the'uninteresting'sick—those with chronic illnesses. Contents......Page 9 Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 11 Prelude......Page 19 Part I Inventing Home Care in the Nineteenth Century......Page 33 1 Trained Nurses for the Sick Poor......Page 35 2 Creating Their Own Domain Ladies, Nurses, and the Sick Poor......Page 47 Part II The Work and Reality......Page 61 3 “Treatment of Families in Which There Is Sickness”......Page 63 4 Caring in Its Proper Place Race Relations at Home......Page 86 5 Lillian Wald and the Invention of Public Health Nursing......Page 116 Home Nursing Care—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow......Page 133 Part III Management and Money......Page 141 6 The Business of Private Nursing......Page 143 7 A Cautionary Tale The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s Home Care Experiment......Page 164 Part IV Reinventing Home Care in the Mid-Twentieth Century......Page 183 8 “An Unchanging Purpose in a Changing World”......Page 185 9 Home Care Becomes the Fashion—Again......Page 201 The Future of Home Care......Page 221 Abbreviations......Page 231 Notes......Page 233 Index......Page 301 As Charleston struggled to recover from the Civil War and Reconstruction, many other U.S. cities were experiencing disparate but equally challenging transformations.