Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Overview of Time period

  • World War I (1914-1918)
  • World War II (1939- 1945)
  • During this time period, the vast majority of people could not afford medical fees or transportation to the hospital. Therefore, they had little to no prenatal care.

Mary Breckinridge

Positions held

Education and Nursing Career

Legacy

Childhood

She died in Wendover, Kentucky on May 19, 1965 at age 84

She wrote an autobiography Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service

  • Founder of the Frontier of Nursing
  • Attended St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1910 (Received R.N.)
  • Traveled to Scotland to learn about nursing in different populations
  • After volunteering in France during WWI, she returned to NY to study at Teachers College of Columbia University studying public health
  • In 1918, while waiting for her station in World War I, she worked as a public health nurse and cared for victims of the influenza epidemic in Washington D.C.
  • At 43, she attended three different British institutions for midwifery
  • She was trained at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies and received her certificate from the Central Midwives Board
  • Mary Breckenridge was born into a wealthy family in Memphis, Tennessee on February 17, 1881
  • Grandfather was vice president under James Buchanan
  • Breckenridge's father was the US ambassador to Czar Nicholas
  • She lived in Washington, D.C. and Russia
  • She spent much of her time exploring the land around her Uncle's plantation in Mississippi
  • Taught in Luasanne, Switzerland and Stamford, Connecticut in private schools and by world renowned tutors
  • In 1918, she volunteered in France during World War I
  • where she was exposed to new healthcare ideas
  • Professor in Eureka Springs
  • Founded and organized the Frontier Nursing Service
  • Traveled on horseback and foot to provide quality prenatal and childbirth care in people's homes

Major Contributions

Challenges Faced

Early Adulthood

Positions Held

Legacy

Childhood

Major Contributions

Education/Nursing Career

Challenges

Early adulthood

The work of the Frontier Nursing Service led to the establishment of the American Association of Nurse-Midwives

The FNS still is functioning in southeastern Kentucky with a hospital

She established neonatal and childhood medical care systems in the United States

Helped create the first American School of Midwifery in 1932

In 1961 received the Mary Adelaine Nutting Award for distinguished service across the United States and oversees

  • Mary felt disadvantaged as a woman women during that time period were often expected to stay in the home and become housewives
  • Difficult for people to accept Breckenridge's nurse midwives because of practice of granny midwives was common. Would use nurse midwives for prenatal care and granny midwives for labor. Granny midwives eventually replaced.
  • Due to the terrain, she was forced to survey all the families on horseback
  • Communication between posts was very difficult due to mountains of the region (only through mail or horseback)
  • Married in 1904 but sadly widowed in 1906
  • Entered St Luke's Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1910
  • Her desire for motherhood lead her to remarry in 1912 to Richard Thompson
  • Taught French and hygiene at Eureka Springs, the university her husband was president of
  • the death of her newborn daughter in 1916 and four-year old son in 1918 pushed her into the work of improving children's health conditions
  • Divorced her husband after the children's death

Frontier Nursing Service

Description of Leslie County

In 1925, Mary organized the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies, which was renamed to the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS).

-This introduced the first nurse-midwives to the United States.

The FNS was a public health organization in eastern Kentucky (Leslie County) that provided nurses on horseback to reach families who could not receive health care otherwise.

The system of the FNS was constructed of 1 main hospital with 6 outpost nursing centers that were all approximately 5 miles from each other

-An average of 250 families were treated per nursing center

-A referral system was established to help patients get outside care if it could not be provided by the FNS (still in place today)

Initially funded by Breckinridge herself, the FNS received aid from various organizations

Since 1925, the FNS registered over 64,000 patients and in its first 50 years it "delivered 17053 babies with only 11 maternal death"

  • Rural life in the Appachia was very difficult
  • No running water
  • No power
  • Only mode of transportation was horse back
  • This was a good area for her because
  • the family name Breckenridge gave her immediate status
  • If she could lower mortality and morbidity under the most difficult conditions she could succeed every where

References

Apple, R. (2010). Mary Breckinridge: The Frontier Nursing Service And Rural Health In Appalachia (review). Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 84(1), 148-149. Doi: 10.1353/bhm.0.0328

Castlenovo, G. (2003). Mary Brenkinridge, http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/press/ioneers/breckinridge.html

Johnson, E. (2001). Mary Breckinridge - A Voice From the Past. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 23(6), 644-652.

Mary Breckinridge. (2000). The American Journal of Nursing, 100(2), 83-83.

Mary Brekinridge. (2003). Enclyopedia Britannica. http://www.ritannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78640/Mary-Breckinridge

Mary Breckinridge. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.truthaboutnursing.org/press/pioneers/breckinridge.html

Ms. Mary Breckinridge. (n.d.). Frontier Nusing Service. https://www.frontiernursing.org/History/MaryBrekinridge.shtm

Pletsch, P. (1981). Mary Breckinridge: A Pioneer Who Made Her Mark. The American Journal of Nursing, 81(12), 2188-2190.

Tomasson, V. (1974). Mary Breckinridge: First American Nurse-Midwife. Appalachian Heritage, 2(3), 18-26.

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi