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The History of Pediatrc Nursing

Pediatric nursing became a specialty in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Before that, midwives delivered babies. Folk medicine was used to treat sick children.

  1. The Children's Hospital

    • The Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, founded in 1855, was the first pediatric hospital in the U.S. It is considered to be where pediatric nursing began as a specialty.
      Other pediatric hospitals later opened in major cities like Boston, San Francisco and New York.

    Nursing Schools

    • Pediatric hospitals did not admit children with communicable diseases until the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia started to do so in 1895, when it also opened a nursing school. It then had enough trained staff to provide the necessary level of care. This was a landmark in the development of nursing schools.

    Community Involvement

    • Nurses were involved in some key programs to improve public health in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They worked to lower child mortality rates by providing low-cost pasteurized milk to children and educating mothers about preventing illness, providing obstetrical care and first aid.

    Federal Programs

    • The Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 provided states with funding to improve the health of mothers and children. Many nurses were employed at infant and maternity centers and to educate mothers and midwives in health care. Pediatric nursing education, along with nursing education in general, improved during this time.

    Nursing Education

    • The 1923 Goldmark Report on nursing education criticized the lack of standardization in nursing education and the conflict of interest among individual hospitals operating their own nursing schools. Nurses were involved in convincing authorities that maternal improvement was vital in pediatric care. These two events helped establish community-based, family-centered care which is heavily dependent on the work of pediatric nurses.

    Certification

    • The Society of Pediatric Nurses was finally founded in 1990, although associations for pediatric nursing specialties already existed. The new society was for generalists and worked with the American Nurses' Association and other associations to establish standards for pediatric nursing and evidence-based recommendations for pediatric nursing care.

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