1. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 1
Robbi L. Pearce
HIST 2110: Minnesota History
July 21st, 2016
The Ever Changing Roles of A Health Care Woman
The life of an American working woman has greatly changed over the years, more
specifically, the life of the Minnesota working woman (especially noted within healthcare) has
changed greatly. From the Ojibwe [medicine] women, to the European immigrants, to the sisters
who cared for patients in the hospitals, to the nurses and other female caregivers today, working
life has changed for them.
Before the white people were introduced into the land known today as Minnesota,
Indigenous people lived there. Of these people, there were Ojibwe people. Within the Ojibwe
tribes were medicine men and women (for the sake of this essay, the medicine women will be the
focus), known as “Mi-de-wi-wi-n” (Broker, 134). These medicine women used herbal remedies,
prayer, and other forms of non-pharmacological practices to heal their tribal members. These
women believed in a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being kept within a balance;
if one part of the being was not doing well, it would lead to other parts to fail (Lipson).
As the Europeans moved into the United States and populated the Minnesota region,
Western medicine (as seen today) with a pharmacological focus was introduced. Along with this
focus, there was a focus on a more physical aspect of well being; spiritual, mental, and emotional
well being were disregarded.
In the late 1800’s, a group of sisters from St. Walburg’s Abbey in Eichstätt, Bavaria,
came to the United States and began to build convents. In 1881, mother Scholastica Kerst
brought her ministries to Duluth. Within that first decade the Benedictine sisters were in the
Duluth area, they had began to staff schools and the local hospitals. In 1898, the sisters started

2. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 2
the St. Mary’s hospital (still today located in the same space). In 1930, “the Sisters owned and
operated the College and large hospitals in Duluth and Brainerd, and were teaching in 20 parish
schools in Duluth, northeastern Minnesota and Chicago. They also staffed an orphanage and
home for the aged in Duluth, and a boarding school for developmentally challenged girls in
Washington D.C.” (St. Scholastica Monastery).
According to the Minnesota Nursing Association, nurses as a whole have participated in
“every health, social justice, and nursing profession movement since the 1800s.” In the late 19th
and early 20th centuries, nurses in Minnesota were working privately with little to no actual
educational training or qualifications. “Deplorable working conditions and the need to protect the
public from those who claimed to be trained nurses propelled nursing leaders to form a
professional organization to establish a code of ethics, elevate standards of nursing, and promote
the interests of nurses.” This group of leaders became known as “the Minnesota State Graduate
Nurses Association,” later to be called the Minnesota Nurses Association. The MSGNA was the
leading group in the movement of standardized nursing education and licensing in 1905. Within
two years, the MSGNA had established the first law for the state registration licensing of nurses.
This law made becoming a nurse more challenging and rewarding for Minnesota women. It
helped to better prepare the women for their careers and made them much more competent
caregivers. Minnesota Nurses have contributed to lots of change in the state; “continuing that
proud tradition of leading the way on critical issues like public health, nursing education
standards, women’s right to vote, civil rights, the 40-hour work week, Medicare and Medicaid,
workplace safety, single-payer health care, women’s rights, and the creation of
MinnesotaCare...” (Minnesota Nurses Association).

3. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 3
The Minnesota Nurses Association has put together a timeline of important events that
have occurred within the Minnesota health care system; the following will highlight some of
those events as well as their relevance to the growth and change of the lives of women health
care workers in Minnesota over the years.
The Minnesota State Graduate Nurses Association achieved legislation in creating the
Minnesota Nurse Practice Act in 1907. In 1913, Minnesota was named the “first Local
Committee of a national program of the Red Cross Nursing Service.” (Minnesota Nurses
Association). The first multi-employer portable pension plan for Registered Nurses in the U.S.
was established in 1963 for nurses in the Twin Cities. The largest strike in U.S. history was done
by nurses in 1984 to protect seniority and introduce layoff language. St. Paul’s block style
nursing program was introduced in 1984 and spread across the nation. Minnesota passed a law
that prevented nurses from being disciplined for refusing to work overtime, a law that took over
14 years to be implemented in other states. In 2001, the Minnesota Nurses Association stepped in
to negotiate unprecedented contract rights. In the Twin Cities in 2010, 12,000 nurses participated
in a 1-day work stoppage in 13 different hospitals (Minnesota Nurses Association).
As well as the Minnesota Nurses Association, Virginia Dunbar and James Gray of the
University of Minnesota also put together a timeline of important events that occurred within the
Minnesota health care system; the following will highlight some of the events these two noted as
well as their relevance to the growth and change of the lives of women health care workers in
Minnesota over the years.
In the early 1900’s, assessment techniques were created to assess the level of illness of
students in schools and send the students home if they met certain criteria. With these new
assessment techniques, school nurses were introduced. These nurses had the role of assessing the

4. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 4
children, caring for the ill children, educating teachers, parents, and children on health related
matters, and providing home visits to determine when a child was fit to return back to school. In
“1909 Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education hires Virginia Rice as Minnesota’s first
school nurse.” (Dunbar and Gray). Virginia’s main focus was that of communicable disease and
physical defects, as well as education related to health and prevention. The University of
Minnesota’s nursing program in 1909 was “the first U.S. nursing school organized as an integral
part of the University.” During the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, “The school nurses in St. Paul
schools devoted all their time trying to prevent the spread of the disease and in helping care for
those who were ill...they visited homes...giving bedside care where needed.” (Dunbar and Gray).
Minneapolis schools started an experiment in 1924 that focused on auditory testing in elementary
schools, using an audiometer. In 1926, Rebecca Aberle, a school nurse in St. Paul, began using
this technology to assess the children at her school. In 1924-25, the Minnesota schools fought
back against the smallpox epidemic by having their school nurses vaccinate the children in the
schools. During World War II, however, many school nurses were recruited to serve as military
nurses. By 1945, “Responsibility for school health program shifted from school nurse and
physician to shared responsibility with teachers, student, and health personnel.” In 1947, “School
based clinics in Chisholm, Minnesota, noted for national recognition in an edition of Minnesota
Health.” In 1948, “The first edition of the School Health Manual for use in Minnesota Schools
was prepared by a Joint Committee of Minnesota Departments of Health and Education...”
(Dunbar and Gray). In the 1950’s, school nurses administered measles and polio vaccines in the
Minnesota schools. In 1961, “Through the efforts of the Minnesota Nurses Association,
Minnesota mandated certification of school nurses by the Board of Teaching. Certification
required baccalaureate preparation in nursing, a public health nursing certificate, and college

5. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 5
credits in education.” In 1970, “Minneapolis and Saint Paul Schools developed school based
clinics providing primary, prenatal and dental care for students.” From 1973 to 1975, “School
Nurse Practitioner Program was initiated by the University of Minnesota.” (Dunbar and Gray).
By 1988, schools were not just providing HIV/AIDS prevention programs, they were required by
state law to do so. (Dunbar and Gray).
As a nursing student at The College of St. Scholastica, in Duluth, MN, I am learning a lot
on the ever changing world of nursing and specifically how that affects the working woman. I
am learning just how flexible I’ll have to be within my future career as a nurse. I am learning
about the pharmacological focus nursing in the United States has but also I am seeing and
learning about the change in the healthcare approach that Minnesota has been a leading role in.
As a state, we are pushing for a more holistic approach to health care (as seen in the Ojibwe
practices so many years ago). With holistic nursing, there is a focus on the patient as a whole:
mind, body, spirit. This form of nursing really speaks to me! Scholastica, like many Minnesota
nursing schools, offers a certificate program for holistic nursing specialties. Like many areas
within the healthcare field, other states are soon to follow in Minnesota’s lead on holistic care.
So what is the relevance of the timeline of events shared above? What do all these
Minnesota women of healthcare have in common? Note the continually changing health care
field as well as the roles these different women caregivers played a part in. Also note just how
flexible these Minnesota women had to be and chose to be in the name of health care.
Minnesota’s working health care women have learned to be flexible and change with the [health
care] times, they strive to further their education, they aim for the greater good of those receiving
the care, they always look towards improvement of the health care system, and they are never
afraid to make a stand when they sense an injustice. Minnesota’s working health care women set

6. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 6
standards to the rest of the United States and continually find ways to improve the health care
system. Being a Minnesota health care woman is an honor and having the honor of being cared
for by a Minnesota health care woman is a blessing.

7. Pearce_Final Paper_Page 7
Sources Consulted
Broker, Ignatia. Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical
Society Press, 1983. Print.
Dunbar, Virginia M., and James Gray. "Education for Nursing; A History of the University of
Minnesota School." The American Journal of Nursing 61.10 (1961): 30. Web. 20 July
2016.
Kernahan, PJ. "Health Care Reform in Minnesota." New England Journal of Medicine N Engl J
Med 328.13 (1993): 970-71. Web.
Lipson, Juliene G., Pamela A. Minarik, and Suzanne L. Dibble. Culture & Nursing Care: A
Pocket Guide. San Francisco: UCSF Nursing, 1996. Print.
Minnesota Nurses Association. "History - Minnesota Nurses Association." Minnesota Nurses
Association. National Nurses United, 2016. Web. 17 July 2016.
St. Scholastica Monastery. "Our History." Our Community. N.p., Apr. 2012. Web. 22 July
2016.