Congratulations to Jaime Lapeyre, the 2011 recipient of the Alice Fisher Society Fellowship for Historical Research in Nursing.
Jaime, BScN 0T4, MN 0T5, is a PhD student at the Faculty, studying with Dean Sioban Nelson. Her research investigates the relationship between two international nursing education programs offered by the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS), and the development of national and international nursing leadership roles during the first half of the 20th century. Jaime also played an integral role in producing the “Notable 90 Honour Roll” for Pulse magazine in celebration of the Faculty’s 90th anniversary last year.
The fellowship is offered to scholars at the masters or doctoral level seeking assistance with research and writing as part of their study of history. Selection of Alice Fisher scholars is based on evidence of interest in and aptitude for historical research related to nursing. It is expected the research and new materials produced by Alice Fisher Society fellows will help ensure the growth of scholarly work focused on the history of nursing.
According to Jaime, the 1920s marked a period in which the debate over the training of nurses in the U.S. resulted in a study of nursing education funded by RF, later named the Goldmark Report. She examines the relationship between the findings of this report and the Foundation’s subsequent funding decisions as well as its relationship with the LRCS. Jaime’s dissertation aims to shed light on subsequent international developments in nursing education and leadership during this period.
To date, Jaime has explored Canadian nurses’ involvement in the LRCS’ international education program and the formation of a shared identity between the global participants of this program. She’s also begun using network analysis to examine ties between nurses involved in several international nursing education and professional organizations during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing in Philadephia, Pennsylvania offers the Alice Fisher fellowship to support two weeks in residence at the Center and ongoing collaboration with nurse historians. Fisher scholars will participate in Center activities and present their research at a Center seminar.
The overall mission of the Barbara Bates Center is to ensure the generation of historical knowledge, scholarship and research on health care and nursing history in the United States and around the world, thereby enabling a better understanding of contemporary health care issues.