Nursing

“By 1940, nurses who worked in specific labor and delivery, postpartum, and nursery units began to develop a clinical expertise and familiarity with the routine that freed them to pay attention to patients’ needs for comfort beyond the strict scientific application of medical treatments. In the process of smoothing the path for the advance of obstetrics, nurses had begun to develop a vision no longer confined to the field of medicine. While cooperative with medicine, nursing was moving beyond a physician definition of the function of nurses. . . . because of their relationships with patients, nurses were privileged to a particular kind of knowledge that while derived form and complementary to medical knowledge, was different (Rinker, 119-120).