Linda Richards
| Linda Richards | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 27, 1841 West Potsdam, New York |
| Died | April 16, 1930 (aged 88) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Pioneering modern nursing in the United States |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Nurse |
Linda Richards (July 27, 1841 – April 16, 1930) was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients.
Richards was born Malinda Ann Judson Richards on July 27, 1841 in West Potsdam, New York. She was the youngest of three daughters of Betsy Sinclair Richards and Sanford Richards, a preacher, who named his daughter after the missionary Ann Hasseltine Judson in the hopes that she would follow in her footsteps.
In 1845, Richards moved with her family to Wisconsin, where they owned some land. However, her father died of tuberculosis just weeks after they arrived there, and the family soon had to return to Richards' grandparents' home in Newbury, Vermont. They purchased a small farm just outside the town and settled there. Betsy Sinclair Richards also contracted tuberculosis, and Linda Richards nursed her mother until her death from the disease in 1854.
Her experience with nursing her dying mother awakened Richards' interest in nursing. Though in 1856, at the age of fifteen, Richards entered St. Johnsbury Academy for a year in order to become a teacher, and indeed taught for several years, she was never truly happy in that profession. In 1860, Richards met George Poole , to whom she became engaged. Not long after their engagement, Poole joined the Green Mountain Boys and left home to fight in the American Civil War. He was severely wounded in 1865, and when he returned home, Richards cared for him until his death in 1869.
Inspired by these personal losses, she moved to Boston, Massachusetts in order to become a nurse. Her first job was at Boston City Hospital, where she received almost no training and was subjected to overwork. She left that hospital after only three months, but was undaunted by her experiences there. In 1872, Linda Richards became the first student to enroll in the inaugural class of five nurses in the first American Nurse’s training school. This pioneering school was run by Dr. Susan Dimock, at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston.
...
Wikipedia