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Apprenticeship and Exploitation: An Analysis of the Work Pattern of Nurses in Training, 1897–1937

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Tom Olson
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Extract

One of the hallmarks of the written history of nursing is the idea that the apprenticeship system of nurses’ training, lasting from the 1870s through the 1930s, was characterized by exploitation. “Emergencies and understaffing” dictated the training of nurses, according to Susan Reverby, because “the demands of the hospital for a work force meant that pupils’ education was continually sacrificed to the exigencies of hospital work” (1987: 64–65; also see Kalisch and Kalisch 1986).

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , Winter 1993 , pp. 559 - 576
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1993 

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