Thanks to nurses.....

Here is an interesting story and excerpt from the book I am reading; “Nursing Against the Odds” by Suzanne Gordon. I found this interesting bit of history about the renowned Mayo Clinic and St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, MN. (As a little background, back in the 19th and early 20th century nuns usually were trained in nursing and were nurses themselves.)

“If you click on history, the website tells you that Dr. William Worrell Mayo joined the Sisters of Francis in building the Saint Mary’s hospital, from which the Mayo Clinic grew. What this description leaves out, Sioban Nelson tells us, is the story behind the official history. As the website informs us, the Saint Mary’s Hospital was built after a great tornado practically flattened the city in 1883. The nuns took the injured to the Academy of the Lady of Lourdes, their motherhouse. Recognizing the need for a hospital, they went for help to the physician William Wordell Mayo, Charlie and Will’s father. What the website leaves out is that he insisted that the city could not support a hospital. The nuns persisted, raising the money, built the building and got the St. Mary’s hospital going. When Dr. Mayo had nothing to do but walk through the doors, he agreed to work with the sisters of St. Francis who ran the hospital. As Nelson explains “It took the sisters four years to raise the money for the hospital for which the Mayo’s made their own! Doctors sought the advise of the outstanding surgical nurse, Sister Fabian. For years the Mayo’s would not operate without her, but this is unknown outside the community”... The Mayo clinic has become an almost Lourdes-like shrine to doctors’ dominance and to faith in the power of heroic medicine, with nursing practically invisible to it’s reputation... When I went to Rochester several years ago, the cab driver ferrying me in from the airport boasted, “We’ve got the Mayo clinic
here in Rochester. It’s the best hospital with the best doctors and the best medicine.”

“And what about the best nursing?” I asked.”

I hope this helps you to understand the importance of nurses in the healthcare field. If you get a chance, pick up this book; better yet, I’ll lend it to you! :)