ABSTRACT
This study is about the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in New Orleans' Charity Hospital during the years between 1834 and 1860. The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph was founded in 1809 by Saint Elizabeth Ann Bailey Seton (first native-born North American canonized in 1975) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Seton's Sisters of Charity was the first community for religious women to be established in the United States and was later incorporated with the French Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in 1850. A call to work in New Orleans' Charity Hospital in the 1830s meant a significant achievement for the Sisters of Charity, since it was the second oldest continuously operating public hospitals in the United States until 2005, bearing the same name over the decades. In 1834, Sister Regina Smith and other sisters were officially called to Charity Hospital, in order to supersede the existing "nurses, attendants, and servants," and take a complete charge of the internal management of the Charity Hospital. The existing scholarship on the history of hospitals and Catholic nursing has not integrated the concrete stories of the Sisters of Charity into the broader histories of institutionalized medicine, gender, and religion. Along with a variety of primary sources, this study primarily relies on the Charity Hospital History Folder stored at the Daughters of Charity West Center Province Archives. Located in the "Queen city of the South," Charity Hospital was the center of the southern medical profession and the world's fair of people and diseases. Charity Hospital provided the sisters with a unique situation that religion and medicine became intertwined. The Sisters, as nurses, constructed a new atmosphere of caring for patients and even their families inside and outside the hospital, and built their own separate space within the hospital walls. As hospital managers, the Sisters of Charity were put in complete charge of the hospital, which was never seen in other hospitals. By wearing a distinctive religious garment, they eschewed female dependence and sexuality. As medical and religious attendants at the sick wards, the sisters played a vital role in preparing the patients for a "good death" as well as spiritual wellness. By waging their own war on the Protestant influences, the sisters did their best to build their own sacred place in caring for sick bodies and saving souls. Through the research on the Sisters of Charity at Charity Hospital, this study ultimately sheds light on the ways in which a nineteenth-century southern hospital functioned as a unique environment for the recovery of wellness of the body and soul, shaped and envisioned by the Catholic sister-nurses' gender and religious identities.
Subject(s)
Catholicism , Charities/history , History, 19th Century , Hospitals, Religious/history , Hospitals, Urban/history , New OrleansABSTRACT
Latino communities continue to grow in the United States. These communities are significantly affected by HIV infection. New Orleans is a city whose demographics have changed since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as numerous Latinos/Hispanics came to the city to help rebuild it. This population might have a higher risk of HIV acquisition and problems with access to health care. Data on HIV infection in these populations are insufficient. Active community participation and commitment of key stakeholders are important for developing strategies to bring about change. Political and social support is also a major determinant of any potential change. The following were common ground points after meetings with key stakeholders: (1) to analyze and diagnose health situations in documented and undocumented communities with HIV/AIDS in the city of New Orleans; (2) to develop partnerships and networks among stakeholders with a significant presence in Latino/Hispanic communities in the city; (3) to strengthen research in Latino/Hispanic community issues among research centers, academicians, and health care services; (4) to investigate the development of prevention strategies and technical innovations; (5) to advocate strategies to improve health care access among documented and undocumented immigrants. This project will report additional findings soon.
La infección por el VIH afecta significativamente a las comunidades de origen latinoamericano, que siguen creciendo en los Estados Unidos. En Nueva Orleans, después del Huracán Katrina en 2005, muchas personas latinas vinieron a la ciudad para ayudar a reconstruirla; aunque no hay datos suficientes, es probable que esta población tenga un riesgo mayor de infección por el VIH, así como problemas de acceso a los servicios de salud. Para elaborar estrategias que propicien el cambio, es esencial la participación comunitaria, el compromiso activo de los interesados directos y el apoyo político y social; algunos puntos de convergencia para un plan de acción son los siguientes: 1) analizar y diagnosticar la situación de salud en comunidades con VIH/sida en la ciudad de Nueva Orleans; 2) establecer alianzas y redes entre los interesados directos con una presencia significativa en las comunidades latinas en la ciudad; 3) fortalecer la investigación en los problemas de la comunidad latina entre los centros de investigación, los académicos y los servicios de atención de salud; 4) investigar el desarrollo de estrategias de prevención e innovaciones técnicas; 5) promover estrategias para mejorar el acceso a la atención de salud entre inmigrantes documentados y no documentados.