Dorothea Dix Of America Essay

entered the nursing field as a matron at New England Hospital in 1874. She left in 1876 and spent two years in England before enrolling at Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses. In 1880 she was hired to start a training school at Montreal General Hospital. In 1881, she was offered the superintendence of the Training School for Nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In 1889, she moved to New York as the director of nursing at St. Luke's Hospital, and from there became superintendent of nursing at the Presbyterian Hospital of New York from 1892-1921. Maxwell was also the first director of the Presbyterian Hospital's nursing school, founded in 1892, which later became the Columbia University School of Nursing. She did commendable job in nursing throughout her life to bring many laurels in healing
At the time of Civil War, she acted as Superintendent at Army Nurses. As inspired by a trip to England, Dix returned to America curious how the US government treated the mentally unstable. Dix spent many years petitioning Congress, drafting legislation, and documenting her visits to various states. Dix first succeeded with the construction of the North Carolina State Medical Society in 1849, dedicated to the care of the mentally ill. She also assisted with legislation that called for 12,225 acres of land to be used for the “insane,” with proceeds of its sale going to build mental asylums. Her commendable work for nursing may be fit into Tilda Shalof who says that the hospital will never be healthy for patients if it's not a healthy environment for nurses, where their voices are heard and where they can care for their patients and use the full extent of their knowledge, abilities, and