This narrative history of nursing education is a case study of a single institution set within the context of trends in the nursing profession, nursing education, and health care practices in the Midwest and the United States. The detailed research and analysis in this work make a fundamental contribution not only to the history of nursing but also to the broader history of women’s work, the history of women in higher education, and the history of the health care professions.
The Midwestern focus of Complete in All Its Parts and its emphasis on the post-World War II emergence of the University of Iowa College of Nursing provide a fresh perspective on the education of nurses, especially the education of nurses within a major teaching-research university. In doing so, this book pushes nursing historiography beyond the profession’s early development, details the struggles involved in establishing nursing as a legitimate academic endeavor in the university environment, and provides groundwork for a comparison with other such institutions across the nation. Its core audience includes health care professionals and educators as well as institutional historians, perhaps especially those involved in the history of American health care institutions. Lee Anderson and Kathy Penningroth are partners in A & P Historical Resources of Coralville, Iowa.