African American Public Health Nurses in Forsyth County, NC 1915-1930

Simone Caron, Wake Forest University

The US Public Health Service’s appointment of its first public health nurses in 1913 led to a public discourse regarding the merits of establishing public health nurses in Winston-Salem. While some critics dismissed it as one of many “fads” sweeping the nation, others asserted that the “public health nurse is about the most important factor in public health work,” even more important than the “health officer.” When the Winston-Salem City Health Department (CHD) was established in 1916, it hired two public health nurses, one White and one Black. Their duties initially included school inspection and control of contagious disease, but rapidly expanded to include “social as well as medical, preventative as well as curative” tasks such as infant and maternal welfare, tuberculosis care, sanitary inspections, and health education. By 1918, the City Health Department hired two additional public health nurses, and by 1921, the CHD employed ten. That same year, Carrie Early Broadfoot, R.N. established the Colored Graduate Nurses’ Association of North Carolina. This paper looks at the role African American nurses played in the expansion of public health measures in curbing contagious diseases and establishing preventative programs in Forsyth County, NC, in the post-World War I era.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 27. Oral Health and Hygiene