5 african amereican nurse leaders annoniated biblography

African American Nurse Leaders Due Davis, T. (1999). Early Black American Leaders in Nursing: Architects for Integration and Equality. Boston: Jones and Bartlett.
African Americans have walked a long and tedious path insofar as leadership in nursing is concerned. It was especially difficult for them when racism was strife and there were hardly any nurses of African American origin. Over time, more and more African American nurses have come up and curved a niche in the profession, some defining it in countless ways (Davis, 1999: p6). Much of this achievement is attributable to mentoring programs among the young and old African American nurses. A number of African Americans have offered leadership in the nursing profession; this assignment will highlight the contributions of just five of them.
Adah Belle Samuel Thoms was born in Virginia in 1870. She studied nursing in Lincoln Hospital and Home school of Nursing, where she graduated in 1905. She became the school’s acting director for almost two decades and was barred from officially becoming the director because of her skin color (Davis, 1999: p27). In her entire nursing career she advocated inclusion of African Americans into the American Red Cross. She also relentlessly agitated for equal opportunities, and was part of the group of nurses that set up the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.
Harriet Tubman worked as a nurse during the American civil war. She had immense knowledge of herbal medicine, which she used to treat soldiers who were wounded in sections of South Carolina. She used the herbs to cure many of small pox and dysentery, and at no point did she contract those diseases herself (Davis, 1999: p35). This made many people think that she was blessed by God.
Hazel W. Johnson –Brown was another African American nurse who was turned down by a local hospital that insisted they would never employ a black person. In 1950, she graduated from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. She then joined the American army. She had special surgical capabilities which enabled her to scale the army ranks, becoming the first ever black female brigadier general, heading over 7000 American army nurse corps. She was voted the army nurse of the year twice (Davis, 1999: p46-48).
Lillian Holland Harvey was the dean of the Tuskegee University School of nursing for over three decades. During her tenure as the dean, she helped establish Alabama’s first degree in nursing, a program which enabled students acquire hands on hospital experience (Davis, 1999: p51-53). She was herself a registered nurse and an educationist who inspired many to further their education, and also made them learn how to balance career and family issue.
Estelle Massey Osborne was born in 1901 and was the first ever African American woman to acquire a master’s degree in nursing. Throughout her glittering and decorated nursing career, she devoted her energies to providing options available to African American nurses throughout the US. She wanted to see more and more black nurses in America attain high-caliber education as the white nurses (Davis, 1999: p56). Later on, she was to become a consultant for the National Nursing Council for War Services, a position which enabled her to help lift the color ban in the American navy and army. She fought a lot for the rights of black nurses.