Nursing, Midwifery & the Medical Profession

Ø “Of the 3 professions---namely, the physician, the trained nurse and the midwife, there should be no attempt to perpetuate the last named (midwife), as a separate profession."

---

Ø "The doctor must be enabled to get his money from small fees received from a much larger number of patients cared for under time-saving and strength-conserving conditions; he must do his work at the minimum expense to himself, and he must not be asked to do any work for which he is not paid the stipulated fee. This means ... the doctors must be relieved of all work that can be done by others ---... nurses, social workers, and midwives." [1922-A; ZeilgerMD, p. 412]

Ø "The nurses should be trained to do all the antepartum and postpartum work, from both the doctors’ and nurses’ standpoint, with the doctors always available as consultants when things go wrong; and the midwives should be trained to do the work of the so called “practical nurses,” acting as assistants to the regular nurses and under their immediate direction and supervision, and to act as assistant-attendants upon women in labor---conducting the labor during the waiting period or until the doctor arrives, and assisting him during the delivery." [1922-A; ZeilgerMD]

Ø "In this plan the work of the doctors would be limited to the delivery of patients, to consultants with the nurses, and to the making of complete physical and obstetrical examinations ... Under this arrangements the doctors would have to work together in a cooperative association with an equitable distribution of the work and earnings." [1922-A; ZeilgerMD, p. 413]