Online Exclusive Article

Cancer Nursing: The Modern Era

Pamela J. Haylock

radiation therapy, chemotherapy, nursing, history
ONF 2011, 38(6), E7-E14. DOI: 10.1188/11.S1.ONF.E7-E14

Sandelowski (1997) suggested that from 1870-1940, emerging technology, defined as the "use of material objects to achieve practical human ends" (p. 4), divided American nursing into two periods-before and after World War II. Sandelowski (1997) presented the case that, throughout American nursing history, technology transformed nursing work, altered social relations and division of labor, and transferred many forms of technology from the domain of medicine to nursing. The work of America's first trained nurses from 1870-1930 consisted of providing for the physical needs and comfort of patients (Hilkemeyer, 1985) and childbearing women; those tasks, categorized as "in-the-flesh" techniques-observing, positioning, and lifting-primarily involved nurses' trained senses of sight, hearing, smell, and touch, along with "deft and gentle hands, and strong back and limbs" (Sandelowski, 1997, p. 5).

Jump to a section

    References

    Almerud, S., Alapack, R.J., Fridlund, B., & Ekebergh, M. (2008). Beleaguered by technology: Care in technologically intense environments. Nursing Philosophy, 9, 55-61. doi:10.1111/j.1466-769X.2007.00332.x
    American Cancer Society. (1950). A cancer source book for nurses. New York, NY: Author.
    Barckley, V. (1967). The crises in cancer. American Journal of Nursing, 67, 278-280.
    Benoliel, J.Q. (1996). Grounded theory and nursing knowledge. Qualitative Health Research, 6, 406-428.
    Berenblum, I. (1931). The anti-carcinogenic action of dichlorodiethylsulphide (mustard gas). Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology, 34, 731-746.
    Bernard, A., & Sandelowski, M. (2001). Technology and humane nursing care: (Ir)reconcilable or invented difference? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34, 367-375.
    Best, N. (1950). Radiotherapy and the nurse. American Journal of Nursing, 50, 140-143.
    Blake, M. (1954). Providing scholarship aid in Iowa. American Journal of Nursing, 54, 1385-1386.
    Bland, C.S. (1981). The Halsted mastectomy: Present illness and past history. Western Journal of Medicine, 134, 549-555.
    Bloomer, W.D., & Hellman, S. (1975). Normal tissue responses to radiation therapy. New England Journal of Medicine, 293, 80-83.
    Brown, E.L. (1948). Nursing for the future. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
    Cannon, P.R. (1955). The changing pathologic picture of infection since the introduction of chemotherapy and antibiotics. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 31, 87-102.
    Donaldson, S.S., & Fletcher, W.S. (1964). The treatment of cancer by isolation perfusion. American Journal of Nursing, 64, 81-84.
    Downs, H.S. (1966). The control of vomiting. American Journal of Nursing, 66, 76-82.
    Ferris, A.A. (1930). The nursing care of cancer patients: Some recent developments. American Journal of Nursing, 30, 814-820.
    Friend, D.G., & Cummins, J.F. (1953). New antiemetic drug: Preliminary report. JAMA, 153, 480-481.
    Glienke, F., & Kress, L.C. (1944a). The cancer patient: Planning for and introducing home care. American Journal of Nursing, 44, 351-354.
    Glienke, F., & Kress, L.C. (1944b). The cancer patient: Giving bedside care in the home. American Journal of Nursing, 44, 434-443.
    Golbey, R.B. (1960). Chemotherapy of cancer. American Journal of Nursing, 60, 521-525.
    Goodman, L.S., Wintrobe, M.M., Dameshek, W., Goodman, M.J., Gilman, A., & McLennan, M.T. (1984). Nitrogen mustard therapy. JAMA, 17, 2255-2261. doi:10.1001/jama.1984.03340410063036
    Handorf, L.L., & Pedersen, T.E. (1950). Nursing care in terminal cancer. American Journal of Nursing, 50, 643-646.
    Helm, E.M. (1943). Nursing in cancer of the breast. American Journal of Nursing, 43, 259-264.
    Henke, C. (1980). Emerging roles of the nurse in oncology. Seminars in Oncology, 7, 4-8.
    Hilkemeyer, R. (n.d.). Oral history. Pittsburgh, PA: Oncology Nursing Society.
    Hilkemeyer, R. (1985). A historical perspective in cancer nursing. Oncology Nursing Forum, 12(1, Suppl.), 6-15.
    Hirsch, J. (2006). An anniversary for cancer chemotherapy. JAMA, 296, 1518-1520. doi:10.1001/jama.296.12.1518
    Hopp, M. (1941). Roentgen therapy and the nurse. American Journal of Nursing, 41, 431-433.
    Hubbard, S.M., & Donehower, M.G. (1980). The nurse in a cancer research setting. Seminars in Oncology, 7, 9-17.
    Johnson, J. (Ed.). (1985). Those were hard days [Videotape transcript]. Pittsburgh, PA: Oncology Nursing Society.
    Johnson, V. (1934). The nursing care of patients with carcinoma. American Journal of Nursing, 34, 768-771.
    Joint Committee of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing and the United States Public Health Service. (1942). The public health nurse curriculum guide. New York, NY: Author.
    Kelly, J. (1938). Some psychological aspects of gynecological nursing. American Journal of Nursing, 38, 470-472.
    Kendall, S. (2006). Being asked not to tell: Nurses' experiences of caring for cancer patients not told their diagnosis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 15, 1149-1167. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01460.x
    Kottke, T.E., & Trapp, M.A. (1998). The quality of Pap test specimens collected by nurses in a breast and cervical cancer screening clinic. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14, 196-200.
    Krumbhaar, E.B. (1919). Role of the blood and the bone marrow in certain forms of gas poisoning. JAMA, 72, 39-41.
    Levin, I. (1927). The cancer problem and the nurse. American Journal of Nursing, 27, 83-89.
    Livingston, B.M. (1967). How clinical progress is made in cancer chemotherapy research. American Journal of Nursing, 67, 2547-2554.
    Lusk, B. (2005). Prelude to specialization: US cancer nursing, 1920-1950. Nursing Inquiry, 12, 269-277.
    Lynaugh, J.E. (2008). Nursing the great society: The impact of the Nurse Training Act of 1964. Nursing History Review, 16, 13-28.
    Moore, F.D., Woodrow, S.I., Aliapoulios, M.A., & Wilson, R.E. (1967). Carcinoma of the breast: A decade of new results with old concepts. New England Journal of Medicine, 277, 293-296, 343-350, 411-416, 460-468.
    Nance, M.R. (1956). Chlorpromazine. American Journal of Nursing, 56, 609-612.
    National Cancer Institute. (2010). National Cancer Act of 1937. Retrieved from http://legislative.cancer.gov/history/1937
    Nelson, K. (1987). Proceedings: Cancer nurses make it happen: A 10th anniversary history of the nursing committee. Wallingford, CT: American Cancer Society, Connecticut Division.
    Palumbo, L.T. (1950). Some recent advances in surgery. American Journal of Nursing, 50, 659-661.
    Papanicolaou, G.N. (1973). New cancer diagnosis. CA: Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 23, 174-179.
    Papanicolaou, G.N., & Trout, H.F. (1943). Diagnosis of uterine cancer by the vaginal smear. New York, NY: The Commonwealth Fund.
    Peterson, R. (1915). How nurses can aid in the fight against cancer. American Journal of Nursing, 15, 817-823.
    Peterson, R.I. (1948). Public health nursing in the Cancer Control Program of the U.S. Public Health Service. American Journal of Public Health, 38, 206-210.
    Peterson, R.I. (1954). Knowledge of cancer—Equipment for nursing. American Journal of Nursing, 54, 463-466.
    Quint, J.C. (1963). The impact of mastectomy. American Journal of Nursing, 63, 88-92.
    Quint, J.C. (1965). Institutional practices of information control. Psychiatry, 28, 119-132.
    Rosalind, M. (1954). We plan to teach intravenous administration of fluids. American Journal of Nursing, 54, 1513-1514.
    Sandelowski, M. (1997). "Making the best of things." Technology in American nursing, 1870-1940. Nursing History Review, 5, 3-22.
    Sandelowski, M. (1999). Venous envy: The post-World War II debate over IV nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 22, 52-62.
    Sandelowski, M. (2000). The physician's eyes: American nursing and the diagnostic revolution in medicine. Nursing History Review, 8, 3-38.
    Shanck, A.H. (1957). The nurse in an intravenous therapy program. American Journal of Nursing, 57, 1012-1013.
    Shuster, E. (1997). Fifty years later: The significance of the Nuremberg Code. New England Journal of Medicine, 337, 1436-1440.
    Simpson, E.M. (1904). Radium. American Journal of Nursing, 4, 526-528.
    Winternitz, M.C. (1920). The pathology of mustard poisoning. In Collected studies on the pathology of war gas poisoning (pp. 101-116). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
    White, L.N., Judkins, A.F., Cornelius, J.L., & Patterson, J.E. (1978). Screening of cancer by nurses. Cancer Nursing, 1, 15-20.
    World Medical Association. (2008). Declaration of Helsinki—Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Retrieved from http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html
    Zubrod, C.G. (1979). Historic milestones in curative chemotherapy. Seminars in Oncology, 6, 490-505.