Page 55 - University of Martland Nursing Forum - Winter 2017

BACK STORY
Community/Public Health Nursing
It’s been 50 years since the University of Maryland School of Nursing graduated the first class of 11 students—as Marlene Cianci, PhD, MS ’66, BSN ’65, RN, recalls—from its Community/Public Health Nursing master’s specialty program, established three years earlier in 1963. According to the World Health Organization, community/public health nursing emerged
in England
under Florence
Nightingale in
Lillian Wald, 1867-1934, credited with establishing American community/
the last quarter of the 19th century with the concept of “district nurses.” An article in the American Journal of Public Health says that Lillian Wald coined the term “public health nurse” a couple of decades later, advancing the philosophy that nurses should treat social and economic problems in addition to health issues.
Were you a member of or do you have memories of the first graduating community/public health nursing class at UMSON? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us at alumni@son.umaryland.edu or 410-706-0674.
public health nursing
Frances Wickham (right, standing), public health nurse and future coordinator of UMSON’s RN-to-BSN program
1960s
lead poisoning clinic, Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD)
1960s
1908
first annual meeting of the National Organization of Public Health Nurses
public health nurses in summer 1930s uniform, Druid Health Center, BCHD
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF NURSING 53
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARLENE CIANCI