Hardbound textbook with illustrations describing nursing practices, surgical supplies, emergency situations, and food preparations; book wrapped in fabric; title stamped on the front cover surrounded with a boxed border; inside front cover has paper attached with the Florence Nightingale pledge wri…
Hardbound textbook with illustrations describing nursing practices, surgical supplies, emergency situations, and food preparations; book wrapped in fabric; title stamped on the front cover surrounded with a boxed border; inside front cover has paper attached with the Florence Nightingale pledge written in blue ink; 316 pages.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Owned by Nora Valleau, graduate of Kingston General Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1928
Stamped on the front cover: "REFERENCE HAND-BOOK // FOR // NURSES // AMANDA K. BECK // Sixth Edition // Revised"; handwritten on the inside cover: "Nora M. Valleau // May 1929"
Permanent Location
Storage Room 2005
2005-3
Temporary Location
On Display: “For Service to Humanity”, Nursing Gallery: Restored Room 1016, Museum of Health Care, 13 Nov 2008.
Length
16.3 cm
Width
10.2 cm
Depth
2.3 cm
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Dimension Notes
Length 16.3 cm x Width 10.2 cm x Depth 2.3 cm
Condition Remarks
Shows minor wear along edges; centre of spine is separating from pages
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
File
Websites
Reference Comments
Remarks in donor file
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, "Medical Publishing," By Richard H. Lampert. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/medical-publishing/
David Yates, "Lystra Eggert Gretter Public Health Advocate and Professional Reformer, 1858-1951," https://www.truthaboutnursing.org/press/pioneers/lystra_gretter.html#pledge
Research Facts
W. B. Saunders Company began in 1888 in Philadelphia, and published "American Textbook of Surgery" in 1892, followed by many other authoritative medical works. One of the most notorious Saunders publishing adventures was the Kinsey Report, comprised of "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female." The company was sold to American broadcaster CBS in 1968.
The Florence Nightingale Pledge was composed by Lystra Gretter, an instructor of nursing at the old Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and was first used by its graduating class in the spring of 1893. The pledge was created as an adaptation of the doctor's Hippocratic Oath. It was revised and slightly changed in 1935. This pledge was recited at graduation ceremonies until the 1970s, when it was either changed or dropped completely, as nursing was an "autonomous profession" and the final line about loyalty to the physician did not match what nursing was truly striving towards, being loyalty to the patient, even in the face of opposition from the physician.