Frontier Nursing Service facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Frontier Nursing Service
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| Location | Hospital Hill, off Hickory St., Hyden, Kentucky |
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| Area | 2.3 acres (0.93 ha) |
| Built | 1928 |
| NRHP reference No. | 90002126 |
| Added to NRHP | January 11, 1991 |
The Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) has helped people in rural areas since 1925. They provide healthcare to communities that don't have many doctors. They also teach nurse-midwives how to care for mothers and babies. This training has been happening since 1939.
Today, FNS runs six healthcare clinics in eastern Kentucky. It also includes the Mary Breckinridge Hospital (now part of Appalachian Regional Healthcare). The Mary Breckinridge Home Health Agency helps people at home. FNS also has the Frontier Nursing University and a Bed and Breakfast Inn at Wendover, Kentucky.
Contents
How It Started
A New Kind of Healthcare
The Frontier Nursing Service began in 1925 in Leslie County, Kentucky. It was started by Mary Breckinridge (1881–1965). She had seen a similar healthcare service in Scotland. Mary traveled through Kentucky to find out what families needed. She talked to many midwives and collected information.
Mary Breckinridge was a nurse who graduated in 1910. She chose this part of Kentucky for several reasons. It was a remote area, hard to reach. There were no licensed doctors in Leslie County. Also, Mary's family was well-known in Kentucky. This helped her get support and money. She led the service until she passed away in 1965.
Helping Moms and Babies
Mary Breckinridge wanted FNS to help children in faraway places. She was inspired by the sad deaths of her own two children. In the 1920s, many babies and mothers died in the U.S. In 1923, about 7 mothers died for every 1,000 births. In 1920, 6 babies died for every 1,000 births.
Doctors and health experts argued about who should help with childbirth. Should it be general doctors, specialists, or midwives? The Frontier Nursing Service was the first group in the U.S. to hire nurses who were also trained midwives. At first, there were no midwifery schools in the U.S. So, FNS offered scholarships for American nurses to study in Great Britain. They also hired skilled midwives from Great Britain. The group was first called the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies.
Growing the Service
The Frontier Nursing Service grew quickly. In 1925, Mary Breckinridge opened the first clinic in Hyden, Kentucky. She had help from two nurses, Edna Rockstroh and Freda Caffin. The clinic was very popular. In the first month, Mary and two nurse-midwives helped 233 patients.
By December 1925, Mary built a log house in Wendover, Kentucky. It was called the Big House. This became her home and the FNS headquarters. The Hyden Hospital and Health Center opened in 1928. Then, nine more nursing centers opened in Leslie County and Clay County, Kentucky. These centers were placed about nine to twelve miles apart. They were near waterways and travel routes. By then, FNS covered a large area of 60 miles.
Because the areas were so remote, nurses had to travel by horseback. In the early years, FNS hired nurses from Great Britain who knew how to ride horses. Mary Breckinridge had learned about modern midwifery there. She also paid for American women to study abroad. They agreed to work for FNS for two years after their training. These nurses traveled to places without running water or electricity. They helped people who had no other healthcare.
Starting a Midwifery School
When World War II began, Mary Breckinridge could no longer send American nurses to Britain for training. To keep helping people, the Frontier Nursing Service quickly started its own school. It was called the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery. The first students started in November 1939. The school has been open ever since.
The course lasted six months. It was based on training from England and Scotland. Each student had to help with 20 births. The first two classes received scholarships. Reva Rubin, a famous maternity nurse, worked there. FNS trained students for its own service and for other groups. By 1952, 122 graduates worked in the U.S. and many other countries. By 1966, 285 qualified nurse-midwives worked around the world. In 1970, the school changed its name to the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing (FSMFN). Now it's called Frontier Nursing University. It uses distance education to train students, meaning they can learn from far away. The FNS was even featured in a 1931 movie called The Forgotten Frontier.
Adding Family Nursing
In the 1980s, fewer babies were being born in Leslie County. This made it harder to support only a midwifery program. So, FNS started a new program called the Community-based Nurse-midwifery Education Program (CNEP). This program let nurses stay in their communities while getting advanced education. The goal was to have more nurse-midwives in areas that needed them.
This new program was very successful. In 1991, FSMFN decided to use the CNEP model for all its nurse-midwifery training. Since then, FSMFN has trained over 1000 nurse-midwives.
In the late 1960s, FNS realized healthcare was becoming more complex. Nurses needed broader training to care for whole families. So, FSMFN created the first program to train family nurse practitioners. In 1970, the school's name changed to Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing (FSMFN). This showed they now offered both midwifery and family nursing. The family nurse practitioner program was restarted in 1999, using the same distance education model. This helped FSMFN continue its mission to train nurses to give complete and culturally sensitive care.
The Frontier Nursing Service Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. This means it's an important historical site.
Frontier Nursing University Today
In 2000, students wanted to complete all their education through distance learning. So, the FSMFN board decided to become an independent graduate school. This meant it could offer a Master of Science in Nursing degree. A lot of work was done, including updating the courses.
On December 6, 2004, the school was officially allowed to grant Master of Science in Nursing degrees. Other important groups also approved their programs. In 2011, the school changed its name to Frontier Nursing University. This showed it was a full university offering advanced nursing degrees.
Today, the university offers many programs for nurses. They can become nurse-midwives, family nurse practitioners, or women's health nurse practitioners. They also offer shorter programs for nurses who already have a master's degree. In 2016, they added an online program for mental health nursing. FSMFN now has graduates in every U.S. state and seven other countries.
Making a Difference
The Frontier Nursing Service has had a huge positive impact.
- For its first 30 years, FNS had better results for mothers and babies than the rest of the country.
- For example, only 9.1 mothers died for every 10,000 births with FNS. The national rate was 34 per 10,000 births.
- Also, only 3.8% of FNS babies had low birth weight. The national average was 7.6%.
- From 1938 to 1939, FNS nurses helped 8,377 people, including almost 5,000 children. They had over 25,000 visits at their centers.
- By 1959, FNS nurse-midwives had helped with over 10,000 births.
- From 1964 to 1965, FNS nurses cared for 10,446 patients in 12 areas. They provided care before, during, and after childbirth to 369 women.
- In 1972, the Service opened the Mary Breckinridge Hospital and Health Center. It had 40 beds.
- In 2011, after facing financial challenges, Frontier Nursing Service sold Mary Breckinridge Hospital. It was sold to Appalachian Regional Healthcare.
- In 2017, the Frontier Nursing Service bought a campus in Versailles, Kentucky. There have been talks about moving the entire nursing school there.
- In 2019, there was a public discussion about possibly moving the historic Breckenridge House. This was Mary Breckinridge's home and the first FNS headquarters.
Kentucky Midwifery Law
In 2019, Kentucky passed a new law about midwives. This law, Senate Bill 84, created rules for certifying and regulating midwives. It also set up a new council to create licensing requirements. Before this, Kentucky had not certified midwives since 1975. There were no clear rules for over 30 years.
The new council works under the Board of Nursing. It will create rules for training programs, licensing, and when a midwife needs to send a patient to a hospital or doctor. The law also makes it illegal to practice midwifery without a license. However, it makes exceptions for traditional birth helpers for religious or cultural reasons. It also allows family and friends to help without pay. How these parts of the law will be used is still being figured out.
