Rapid social change and the advances made in the field of health care have greatly changed the role and function of the nurse in the last fifty years. Nursing is now almost a full-fledged profession.

This book celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the School of Nursing of the University of Toronto. The field it covers is wide and varied – from care of the sick by the nuns of early Quebec to the development of pre-paid nursing plans, from concepts of "beside nursing" to "delivery health services." There are long looks into the future of nursing education and health care which include descriptions of health science centres, diagnosis by computer, and treatment centres in outer space. The book sketches the history of this pioneer school of nursing, surveys nursing legislation, and examines the rise of the public-health nurse and the nursing assistant. Essays contributed by leading Canadian authorities show a wide range of opinion: one writer wants to see the scope of nursing education enlarged, another thinks it is too broad already.

At a time when nursing education is becoming an increasingly controversial subject, this book will be of interest and value to all those in the health field.

Mary Quayle Innis (1899-1972) was an economist, writer, editor, and academic administrator. She was the dean of women at University College, University of Toronto, for a number of years, and she was married to noted economics historian, Harold A. Innis.

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