Windows in Time A Newsletter from The Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry Volume 18, Issue 1, 2010 May 2010 The Center for Nursing Providing Access to Care: An Historical Perspective Historical Inquiry Staff Arlene Keeling PhD, RN Today, as in the past, many United States citizens do not have full access to Director the medical and nursing care they need. Indeed, despite Congress’s recent
[email protected] passage of the Health Care Reform Act, 32 million Americans remain Barbara Brodie PhD, RN, FAAN Associate Director without sufficient insurance and access to health care – a fact that will
[email protected] likely be a reality until the full effects of the bill are realized in 2014.1 This Mary E. Gibson PhD, RN fact is no more evident than in the recent participation of several hundred Assistant Director
[email protected] Americans in a Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic held in a Los Angeles John Kirchgessner PhD, RN, PNP Sports Arena, a scene described by John Rogers of the Associate Press as Assistant Director one “that could have been playing out in a third world country” in which
[email protected] people “began arriving before dawn on a cold misty morning. all of MSM Linda Hanson 2 Administrative Assistant them seeking the same thing: free medical care.”
[email protected] The scene is reminiscent of that in the streets of New York City where Maureen Spokes MLS th Archivist Nurse Lillian Wald started a “first aid room” at the turn of the 20 century
[email protected] to provide care for poverty stricken immigrants on the Lower East Side.