Lavinia Lloyd Dock
Nursing Pioneer
Where have we come from? Who are
we? Where are we going?
Early Years
• Born on February 26, 1858 in the town of
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• One of six children (4 sisters and 1 brother)
into a quite wealthy family.
• The parents insisted that the children,
especially the girls, received a proper Victorian
education in art, music, literature and
language.
• (The son became a prominent physician.)
Early years
• Lavinia cared for her 44 year old mother during
her terminal illness.
• Was influenced by article about “new profession”
for women-- in the Century Magazine in 1882.
• Her father’s finances took a down-turn; she
decided at the age of 26 to enter the Bellevue
Hospital nurses’ training school in New York
(1864) a year before the Civil War ended in 1865.
Societal Reactions
• Why exchange traditional role as wife, mother,
and manager of the home to work for money?
• Why study and work in a strange hospital in
New York?
• “One friend went to nursing school for 2
weeks and learned all she needed to know!”
• It is a disgraceful decision for a lady.
Nurse Training School
• Was based on Nightingale’s principles that had a
great influence on improving the care of the sick
and wounded.
• This was a time when women with influence had
reformed several hospitals, and initiated the
student apprenticeships.
• Bellevue was joined later by the Connecticut
Training School at New Haven, and the Boston
Training School that welcomed their first students
in 1873.
Hospital School
• Student nurses received room and board in a
nurses’ home near the hospital.
• Students wore the blue and white striped
seersucker uniform covered with a white apron.
• (One never served food to a patient with the
same apron worn while bathing patients.)
• The uniform was short enough not to touch the
floor, but long enough to be modest and not
show the legs.
Hospital school
• Nursing was considered a “calling”.
• Study and work were very serious endeavors.
• No diversions after work except an occasional
concert or opera.
• An evening might be used for making
chocolate over a gas jet.
• No smoking allowed! Makeup, lipstick, red
nails were unheard of.
Hospital School
• The libraries contained few books.
• Courses were elementary with lectures by
physicians, mostly.
• Daily conversations were focused on work and
study.
• Followed a military atmosphere and discipline
and careful attention to ethics.
• Students learned by imitation and trial and
error.
Hospital School
• The age of 26 for admission was appropriate
since the women were “more settled,” had
previous life experiences, and knew how to
follow instructions!
• Probationers looked forward to receiving the
“cap”.
• Upon graduation they received a diploma and
a nurse’s badge.
“Trained nurses and students did
improve hospital conditions”.
• Number of hospitals and nursing schools in
the U.S. increased to 549 by 1900.
• In 1874, a visiting committee at Bellevue
reported the high death rate of maternity
patients due to puerperal fever after being
examined by the physicians in surgical wards.
• The training school took charge of the wards
and finally removed these patients from
Bellevue.
Post-Graduation
• Lavinia’s first job was as night supervisor.
• She also helped develop a visiting nurse
service for a church mission.
• Recommended for the first visiting nurse
position in Connecticut.
• Here, the nurse practiced autonomously by
deciding “the frequency of home visits and
when to make referrals”.
Post-Graduation
• Volunteered in Jacksonville, Florida in 1888
during the Yellow Fever epidemic.
• Volunteered during the devastation of the
Johnstown, Pennsylvania floods in 1889.
• It was the first major disaster relief effort
handled by the new American Red Cross, led
by Clara Barton.
Societal Changes
• U.S. transitioned to Industrial Nation after Civil
War.
• People moved from rural areas to work in
factories.
• Blacks and Native Americans were joined by
immigrants from other countries.
• All lived in segregated tenement areas—
deprived from education, employment &
health care.
Lillian Wald
Henry Street House
• Lavinia’s beliefs in freedom & justice led her to
join Lillian Wald, Mary Brewster, and other
pioneer nurses at the Henry Street House
Settlement to provide care for people living in
tenements.
• This was the forerunner of the Public Health
Nurse role.
• As reformers, the “new woman” was educated,
committed to a career, and usually unmarried.
Materia Medica
• Authored the first pharmacology text for nurses
in 1890.
• The purpose was to aid the nurses in knowing
what medications they were giving and the
observations to make about the effectiveness or
side-affects.
• “Physicians, often, gave large doses of dreadful
poisons and expected nurses to watch the results
and not allow any untoward effects”.
Materia Medica
• She collected “every recipe she could find to
make the nasty, oral liquid drugs of the day
easier to take.”
• Text proved to be beneficial for medical
students as well.
• The text went through 7 copyright editions
(from 1890 to 1926.)
Materia Medica Contents
• Introduction to Metric System
• Glossary of terms
• Classification of organic & inorganic drugs;
drugs from animal and vegetable kingdoms
according to their physiological effects, and a
table of poisons and antidotes.
• Instructions were provided so that nurses
could make some of the mixtures.
Medications
• Mixtures of gold, silver, copper, antimony
(from stibium) and zinc were mentioned.
• Strychnine and atropine were used together
for Lupus and tubercular diseases.
• Aconite from the Monks Hood plant
(Wolfsbane) was used as a depressive, a
sedative, diuretic, diaphoretic, and to
decrease temperature.
Medications
• Mustard seed and Flaxseed (Linseed) oils were used in
poultices. Mustard in small amounts orally aided
digestion.
• Pomegranate rind was given to eliminate tapeworm,
but was not safe for children. It had an unpleasant
taste, caused severe cramping.
• The person fasted 12-18 hours before taking a
decoction of 2 ounces to 1 pint water in divided doses
over one hour. A cathartic was given afterward and no
food was allowed until the treatment was over.
Medications
• Ground ordinary pumpkin seeds mixed with
sugar and water could also be used for
tapeworm.
• Oil of Cloves was used as an anesthetic in the
cavity of an aching tooth.
New Drugs 1902 Edition
• Antiseptol—replaced Iodoform
• Diphtheria Antitoxin:
• Methylene Blue: (primarily for rheumatic &
neurological diseases)
• Migranin: (contained caffeine and citric acid for
migraine and influenza.
• Terpin Hydrate (expectorant for bronchitis &
whooping cough)
• Tuberculin:
• Urotropin: (to dissolve uric acid calculi)
Significant Contributions
• Lavinia felt that experiences at Henry Street
House were the most influential factors on her
thinking and actions.
• Involvement with other suffragettes in
support of the equal rights amendment led to
badgering by politicians and arrests—yet
every woman in this room has the right to
vote!
Significant Contributions
• She worked with many of the pioneer nurses
in educating nursing students and insisting on
raising the educational standards.
• She thought nurses had a responsibility to
society and were the patient advocate for all
people.
• She helped create the American Society of
Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses
which is now the NLN.
Significant Contributions
• Collaborated with Isabel Stewart in writing a
history of nursing from primitive times to
1920 that was used as a nursing text.
• Worked with Ethel Bedford Fenwick to
develop the International Council of Nursing,
and served as the first secretary of the
organization; an office she held for 22 years.
Significant Contributions
• She was involved in initiating the American
Journal of Nursing and served as the editor of
the journal for 23 years, the opportunity to
publish several articles on freedom and
justice.
• She was inducted into the American Nurses
Association Hall of Fame in 1976.
Significant Contributions
• Lavinia’s career in nursing and advocacy for
freedom and justice issues lasted for 70 years.
• She returned home to live with three of her
sisters. She fell and broke her hip and died
April 17, 1956 at the age of 98.
Nursing Heroines
• Lavinia and the other pioneer nurses: Isabel
Hampton Robb (Johns Hopkins) Jane Delano,
Isabel Stewart, Adelaide Nutting, and so many
others provided a great foundation for us.
• Should we be conducting more research on
the contributions of nurse heroines since
then? Now, what do we plan to do for the
future of nursing and health care?
By viewing the old we learn the new.
References
American Association for the History of Nursing.
www.aahn.org
Burnam, M.A.B. (1998). Lavinia Lloyd Dock: An activist in
nursing and social reform. Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State
University.
Dock, L.L. & Stewart, I.M. (1938). A short history of nursing.
(4th ed.) New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Dock, L.L. (1902). Text-book of materia medica for nurses. (3rd.
ed.) New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Wald, L. (1915). The house on Henry Street. New York: Henry
Holt & Co. (reprint edition)