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: Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives over more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but they also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula rarely include nursing's history, but it's a history worth knowing. To this end, From the AJN Archives highlights articles selected to fit today's topics and times.This month's article, from the June 1926 issue, offers ideas "by which we hope to make ward experiences of more value to the student." Author Mina A. McKay originally presented this material at a meeting of the Massachusetts State League of Nursing Education. She calls for more comprehensive morning and evening reports ("not just a mere reading of… orders"), the use of student experience records, ward clinics ("the type of bedside talk which supplements class room lectures"), and case reports presented by the students themselves. Efforts to improve clinical nursing education are ongoing, and in "'Flipping' the Classroom" in this month's AJN, Diane M. Billings describes a relatively new way of translating clinical concepts into practice.

The move towards comprehensive nurse training in Australia thirty years ago continues to trouble many of its mental health nurses. It has been viewed as a failure by many and the profession has been judged by some commentators to have lost its preparedness for specialist care. Discourse put forward to support this negative evaluation usually centres on the recruitment of mental health nurses and a limited interest among student nurses to undertake mental health nursing because of their negative opinions towards it. Emerging from a larger ethnographic research project focused on mental health nursing practice in Australia, this article presents an analysis of the profession's current circumstances using historical print media. As we move further from the era of direct entry, specialist training, the article notes the development of assumptions within the profession. These include the idea that mental health nurses received better training in direct entry, specialist programs, and therefore were better prepared for their specialist roles. The article puts forward a critique that challenges this. The article argues the most profound change faced by the profession is the erosion of the mental health nursing identity in Australia. The loss of the stand-alone hospital system, direct entry specialist training, and specialist professional registration have left mental health nursing with a growing uncertainty about itself as the profession evolves into its (mostly) post-mental institution world. At a time when the specialty of mental health nursing is experiencing serious staff shortages throughout the developed world, the article points to the importance of using historical sources to contextualize our present circumstances.

Objective to discuss the conditions that enabled home care at the beginning of the twentieth century. Method study of the genealogic inspiration on home care. The empirical material consisted of legal documents on the subject that were published in the Official Journal. The documents were studied using analytical tools, such as Power, Discipline and Biopolitics, which were inspired in Foucault. Results two analytical categories were established, "home inspection: visiting nurses and tuberculosis" and "records: political and economic apparatus". Final considerations tuberculosis, the new profession of visiting nurses, inspection records and the detailed analysis of the cities grant home care a nature of surveillance, inspection and control to conduct the behaviour of individuals.

Aim: The aim of this article was to present experiences from the field in the context of the International Council of Nurses' Leadership for Change™ programme, which celebrates 20 years of excellence in 2016 for developing the leadership and management capacity of nurses worldwide., Background: The programme was launched in 1996 in order to boost nurse participation in the healthcare policy-making process, globally, and to foster within the nursing profession the requisite skills for nurses to lobby for and assume a greater responsibility in the leadership and management of health care services., Introduction: Over the course of two decades, the programme has been implemented in cooperation between ICN, national nurses associations, the World Health Organization, Ministries of Health and a variety of donor organizations such as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and development agencies such as USAID and AUSAID. The programme has been implemented in more than 60 nations throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific Islands, to name a few regions., Methods: This article offers an overview of the impact that certified ICN LFC nurse trainers and their colleagues have had in the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and the United States of America and is affiliated islands and the North Pacific Islands., Results: Twenty years of growth and empowerment are now the ongoing legacy of the ICN LFC Program, which has graduated and deployed nurse trainers around the world and achieved significant advances in the professional development of nurse leaders on an international scale., Implications for Nursing and Health Policy: Nurse leaders can improve the health and well-being of their nations in collaboration with consumers and other key stakeholders. Nurse leaders are critical in improving health systems, their work places and broader societal challenges through sound nursing practice, education, research and evidence-based health and social policy change., (© 2016 International Council of Nurses.)

Janet Davies, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, reflects on the RCN's achievements since its foundation in 1916, and looks ahead to the challenges the nursing profession faces in 2016 and beyond.

This article describes the experiences of Army nurses in the University of Virginia sponsored 8th Evacuation Hospital during World War II. In addition, it examines gender and role differences within the Army Medical Department, and how nurses' contributions helped shape the profession. This research used traditional historical methods of inquiry to include both primary and secondary sources of information. Primary sources include newspaper clippings, letters, citations, and photographs from the archival collections of the 8th Evacuation Hospital located in the University of Virginia Historical Collections and Services, Charlottesville, VA, and journal articles from that period. Secondary sources consisted of bibliographical and historical texts. Evidence suggests that advances in the chain-of-evacuation, antibiotics, dissemination of blood products, and nurses' expanded roles all contributed to increased survival of the wounded. Nurses' performance garnered an enduring respect from combatants who received care, as well as the medical officers and enlisted personnel with whom they worked on a daily basis. Collaboration, mutual respect, and coordinated teamwork were critical for mission success. Army nurses demonstrated that they had the mettle to go into a war zone and perform in an exemplary manner.

Overview: While directing the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, Susan B. Hassmiller, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's senior adviser for nursing, realized the value that nursing history could bring to the campaign. She decided to interview her mother, Jacqueline J. Wouwenberg, a 1947 graduate of the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing, in order to better understand and contextualize changes that had occurred in the nursing profession during the 20th century. In collaboration with nurse historians Cathryne A. Welch and Sandra B. Lewenson, Hassmiller participated in interviewing her mother and was also interviewed herself. The stories that emerged revealed a great deal: each woman had found that nursing had given them countless opportunities that reflected the time periods in which they lived. Wouwenberg's experiences, transmitted to Hassmiller through words and actions, also served as important lessons for her daughter. This article shares five lessons: be independent and courageous, know that nursing has no bounds, follow your passion, honor diversity, and give back. It also asks readers to reflect on the relevance of nurses' work from one generation to the next..

The 2010 Institute of Medicine report, the Future of Nursing, recommended that nurses work to the "full extent of their training" to address the primary healthcare needs of United States citizens. This article identifies and describes historical antecedents, cornerstone documents, and legislative acts that served to set the stage for today, laying the groundwork for an expanded role for advanced practice nurses in the 21st century. Beginning with Lillian Wald's work in Henry Street Settlement in 1893, through Mary Breckenridge's founding of the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925, the discussion describes how nurses provided access to care for thousands of urban and rural citizens throughout the United States in the past. The article also discusses political forces at midcentury and the creation of the nurse practitioner role with the premise that nurses can learn from these early initiatives to create new models for nurses' roles in primary care today.

The nurse practitioner (NP) role is marking its 50th anniversary in 2015. This article explores the history and future of the role by talking with NP thought leaders.

The Korean government introduced CHPs (Community Health Practitioners) as front-line primary health care providers to address the health disparity between urban and rural areas. Through their dedicated contribution over last 30 years, the CHPs have improved Korea's public health through the successful control of high birth rates, a lowered maternal and infant mortality rate in the 1980s, eradication of parasitic infection, and containing many communicable diseases including hepatitis B. However, rapid changes in the health care environment and demands for health care among rural residents have required changes in the roles and functions of the CHPs. They are challenged by fundamental changes in the public health system addressing various health issues due to a rapidly aging society, pandemic of chronic disease, new infectious disease, and climate changes. CHPs should continuously transform their roles and functions to establish a lifelong health management system. This article presents a historical overview of the CHP system and their tasks and activities. Also, recent challenges that CHPs are facing and strategies to overcome those challenges will be discussed. This historical overview will be informative for other developing countries in resolving their own public health problems., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

When I was seven years old Daisy Ayris was busy setting up NATN. We all know that very little is ever gained in isolation and our founder had the support of many willing nurses at this time. Amongst those committed nurses taking up the gauntlet was a lady also from Yorkshire called Isobel Curry. It is indeed thanks to Daisy, Isobel and many others that the Association has grown, developed and blossomed into the inclusive Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP), now in its 51st year of existence.

Healthcare delivery is subject to constant transformation and reform as the NHS seeks to provide effective health care under the scrutiny of service users. This can be especially difficult in times of recession. This article will consider the similarities between the development of a public healthcare system in the 20th and 21st centuries in Britain under Lords Dawson and Darzi respectively, and the impact these changes have had on discussions on the introduction of polyclinics and on nursing today.

Background: The extensive nature of the Iraq-Iran war converted to a human tragedy with large casualties; it has affected nursing discipline dramatically., Aim: To analyse the history of the wartime experience of Iranian nurses in Iran-Iraq War., Method: The current study was conducted with oral history. The study sample consisted of 13 Iranian nurses who served in the war zones during the wartime. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit the participants. During the face-to-face interviews, participants were asked to describe their experience in the war zones during the war years. Data collection and analysis took place from April to August 2013, when saturation was reached. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed and then analysed with thematic content analysis., Results: Finally, five themes and 18 subthemes emerged from data analysis of significant statements from 17 interviews. The five emerged themes included (1) 'From margin to centre', (2) 'Development of referral care', (3) 'Personal and professional growth and development', (4) 'The emerging pillar of culture in war nursing' and (5) 'Threats to nursing at the war'., Conclusion and Relevance to Clinical Practice: Nursing in Iran at wartime has a difficult path to development. There are powerful implications for clinical practice. It is recommended to continue collection, archiving and analysing the wartime experiences of Iranian nurses.

As the world prepares to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, it is timely to discuss meaningful learning activities that students of nursing could be engaged in to encourage them to reflect on the nurse's role then and now. Several films and television series about the war and featuring nursing have already been aired. No doubt there will be many more stories to come. Such stories have the potential to do more than eulogise nursing for students and practitioners. Stories, such as The crimson field, have potential to stimulate serious contemplation about values and cultural practices that have remained constant or have changed and to assist students to develop and articulate values that will be fitting for contemporary practice. Recently, excerpts from the series were examined with a group of nursing students and key learnings were found. These are shared in this paper for the benefit of educators planning to utilise public discourse as triggers to engage nursing students in discussions about nursing values, nursing history and representations of the profession.

Background: Australian legislation supporting the nurse practitioner (NP) role was enacted in 1998. Since then, NPs have played an important advanced practice role within the interdisciplinary healthcare team. However, the literature suggests that transition to the NP role can be challenging., Aim: This paper highlights the complex transition experiences of ten recently endorsed Australian NPs. The convoluted legislative and regulatory requirements that were negotiated by the NPs are presented as narratives., Methods: Informed by an ethnographic approach, participants were interviewed several times during their first year. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed and aggregated into three narratives representative of key findings., Key Findings: The findings exemplify the complexity of navigating through a labyrinth of bureaucracy and the extensive negotiations required to appease those who yielded power over their future practice., Conclusion: This study raises awareness of the transition experiences of Australian NPs and their challenges and barriers during this time.