xt7c2f7jr86m https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7c2f7jr86m/data/mets.xml The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. 2005 bulletins English The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletins Frontier Nursing Service, Vol. 81, No. 1, Summer/September 2005 text Frontier Nursing Service, Vol. 81, No. 1, Summer/September 2005 2005 2014 true xt7c2f7jr86m section xt7c2f7jr86m FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
Volumc 81 Number 1 Summer/Scptcmbcr 2005
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Eightieth Annual Report
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TABLE OF CONTENTS _
The Joumey - W W Hall, Jr I
Dr. Anita Comett Joins Staff- Barb Gibson 2
FNS 80th Year Celebration Schedule 4
FNS 80th Year Celebration Update 5
* A Presentation ofthe Early Years and Where We
Are Today - Jane Leigh Powell 7
* Mary Breckinridge awarded the 10,000th Certificate
by the ACNM Certification Council 16
* Kitty Emst is Awarded Outstanding Alumnus 19
Life as a Courier - Sarah Dotters—Katz 23
Beyond the Mountains — Barb Gibson 24
Field Notes - Barb Gibson 25
Life as a Clinician in Southeast Kentucky - Laura Mann-James 27
The Future of Nurse-Midwifery Education - Kitty Ernst 30
Eightieth Annual Report - BKD, LLP (A uditors) 3 5
ln Memoriam 53
Urgent Needs 60
Cover: Miss Jane Leigh Powell, Chairman of FNS Board of Governors
- June 13th Reception at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D. C.
Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletin is published at the end of
each quarter. Subscription Price $5.00 ayear for Donors/$15.00 for Insti-
tutions. Periodicals postage paid at Wendover, Kentucky 41775 and at
additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to FNS,
Inc. 132 FNS Drive, Wendover, Kentucky, 606-672-2317. Copyright FNS/
Inc. 2000 All Rights Reserved. The Frontier Nursing Service does not
share it’s donor mailing list.
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 1
The Journey
4 WW Hall, Jn President & CEO
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W W Hall, Jr., President & CEO 0f FNS, Inc.
Welcome to the Frontier Nursing Service. If you are new, we
invite you to read the contents of this Quarterly Bulletin (QB)
which will update you on the continuing progress ofthe Frontier
Nursing Service. For those ofyou who read the QB faithfully, you
will notice some changes in format and content. We have made
an effort to model today’s QB after Mrs. Breckinridge’s in the
early years.This includes "Beyond the Mountains" where Mrs.
Breckinridge wrote of her travels and "Field Notes" where you
can find tidbits of interest all across the organization. You will also
find an update of our 80th Year Celebration events including a
wonderful FNS history and "where we are today" presentation
given at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C., by our Chair-
man of the Board of Governors, Miss Jane Leigh Powell.
Thank you, all of our faithful donors, for your continued support of
our work, whether it be financially, orjust a small word of encour-
agement.
2 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
i Dr. Anita Cornett Joins Staff l
by Barb Gibson
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We are pleased to announce that Dr. Anita Comett, Board Certi- E
fied Diplomat American Board of Intemal Medicine, joined the
staff at Mary Breckinridge Hospital (MBHC) and Frontier Nurs-
ing Healthcare (FNH clinics) during April this year. Dr. Comett
serves as the FNH Medical Director. From 1992 to April 2005,
Dr. Cornett was in private practice at Christian Healthcare Ser- l
vices in Hyden. Christian Healthcare Services is now an FNH l
clinic with a new name, Christian Family Healthcare.
Dr. Cornett attended Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, S
where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. She ob-
tained a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kentucky
College of Medicine and did her Residency in Intemal Medicine {
at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. E
Dr. Cornett says that she loves to take care of the elderly which is I
challenging and consists of multisystem diseases. Dr. Cornett val-
ues the doctor/patient relationship. She serves as Medical Direc-
tor at the Hyden Manor Nursing Home and sees patients at the
l QUARTERLY BULLETIN 3
i Laurel Creek Healthcare Center in Manchester, Kentucky. She
- also serves as voluntary teaching faculty at the University of Ken-
i tucky College of Medicine. Dr. Comett has a special interest in
Y osteoporosis and last fall became a Certified Clinical Densitometrist
(CCD) which allows her to interpret DEXA scans.
Dr. Comett says she grew up hearing stories about FNS and "the
nurses" from her grandparents and was always fascinated with
the story of Mary Breckinridge. As a teenager, Dr. Comett’s par-
. ents moved to Leslie County from Ohio and she has never wanted
. to leave. Dr. Cornett’s goals are to provide excellent care to her
patients, to listen, and to show respect and genuine concem for
their needs. It is important to her that her patients trust her and
i know that she has their best interest in mind. Dr. Comett wants
FNS clinics and the hospital to be places in which the patients can
have confidence.
S Dr. Comett is married to Brad Caldwell and has one daughter,
l Katie Caldwell, age 16, and one son, Bobby Caldwell, age 13. She
enjoys reading, singing, playing piano and collecting Precious Mo-
i ments figurines and baseball cards. She loves to travel, is very
involved with her church, serves at a free clinic for the uninsured
; on Saturdays and works with Lifeline Ministry for addicts.
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4 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
l FNS Celebrates 80 Years of Service i i
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Celebration/Fundraising Events Schedule
September 15, 2005, 5:00 pm - Ralph Stanley, a Bluegrass
musician performance - The baseball field next to the Nixon Cen-
ter in Hyden. The performance is an FNS tribute to the commu-
nity. i
September 30, 2005 - Community picnic held at the Mary
Breckinridge Hospital parking lot in conjunction with the Mary
Breckinridge Festival. ;
October 1, 2005 - Mary Breckinridge Festival Parade.
October 14, 15, 2005 — The Hallelujah Singers from Beaufort,
South Carolina will be performing on Friday night, October 14th,
7:30 pm, at the Community Center in Hyden. Miss Jane Leigh
Powell, Chairman of the Board of Governors, will speak at this
event. The Hallelujah Singers will also perform at the Frontier
School of Midwfiery & Family Nursing graduation ceremony at
the Community Center on October 15th, 3:00 pm.
See next page for 80th Celebration Events Update.
I
For more information contact Barb Gibson, 606-672-23l7/ i
barbgibson2000@yahoo.com.
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QUARTERLY BULLETIN 5
1 FNS 80th Year Celebration Update
it On Monday, June 13, 2005, the Frontier Nursing Service hosted a
j reception to celebrate 80 years of service in the Grand Ballroom
1 of the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. Ap-
proximately 150 guests attended this wonderful event. Both old
] and new friends of the FNS were greeted. Jane Leigh Powell,
1 Chairman of the FNS Board of Governors opened the festivities
T with an eloquent presentation of the early years of FNS and the
legacy Mary Breckinridge started in 1925. Miss Powell also shared
some of her personal experiences of her 50+ years of involve-
j ment with the FNS and closed her address with our present day
successes.
The recently released FNS 80‘*‘ Celebration DVD was then shown.
This professionally produced DVD highlights the many facets of
FNS and tells of how the vision of Mary Breckinridge continues
today.
1
1 Mr. W.W. Hall, Jr., President & CEO of FNS, Inc., continued
Miss Powell’s discourse on the healthy state of FNS and informed
the large audience of our plans to focus on our hospital and five
healthcare centers in the years ahead. Dr. Susan Stone, who had
I just received the title of "Fellow" by the ACNM, spoke of the
Q major accomplishment of the Frontier School of Midwifery and
l Family Nursing for the past year with the full accreditation to
offer a Masters of Science in Nursing degree.
j Between Miss Powell’s heartfelt renditions of our past to Mrs.
Kitty Ernst’s wonderful stories, the event was a complete suc-
cess. Support for the FNS was very strong from those who at-
tended. The memory of Mary Breckinridge was acknowledged
Q by the awarding of the 10,000* Certified Nurse Midwife certifi-
cate to Miss Powell, Mr. Hall and Dr. Stone. Our presence was
felt in Washington and we believe that this event will benefit the
FNS for many years to come. - Michael Claussen, C0urier/
Development C00rdinat0r
6 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
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Among old friends attending the Mayflower event was (left)
Elsie Maier, a 1963 FSMFN graduate and stafmidwfe at
FNS, and Dr. Susan Stone ,
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June 13th 80th Celebration event at The Grand Ballroom at
the Mayflower Hotel
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 7
l
T FNS 80th Year Celebration Update - Cont’d
V The Early Years and Where We Are Today
by Jane Leigh Powell, Chairman of Board of Governors
‘ The following are excerpts from a presentation by Jane Leigh
l Powell at the June 13, 2005 80th Celebration Reception held
r at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D. C. Parts
of this presentation were taken jrom FNS Quarterly Bulletins.
l Welcome to the celebration honoring the 80th anniversary of an
extraordinary organization. In gathering my thoughts on what to
say, l was drawn to the very beginning of the FNS and how it is
that we’re here 80 years later.
l "Notwithstanding the advanced public health work done in many
parts ofthe United States, which has resulted in the prolongation
of human life and greatly decreased mortality from preventable
disease, statistics show that our mortality from childbirth is higher
than in any other civilized country. The sixteen other countries
that have lower death rates have no better medical and nursing
l service than ours, but they all have what we conspicuously lack, a
} large body of qualified midwives, trained and supervised. Although
we also use midwives for about thirty percent of our confine-
ments, we have not brought them abreast ofthe times except in
one or two ofthe large cities. So that while we could not conceive
of eighteenth century surgery for our young soldiers, we continue
to supply eighteenth century obstetrics to our young mothers and
have lost more women in childbirth in our history as a nation than
men on the field of battle, and over a hundred thousand of our
youngest and most defenseless citizens pass annually from one
k dark cradle to another with hardly a gap between.
t The same system that has effected such marked reductions in the
_ maternal and infant death rate in other countries, viz: that of sub-
stituting trained and supervised midwives for untrained ones, could
‘ effectively be used in meeting the needs in our isolated rural ar-
i eas, especially as carried out in Great Britain with its similar lan-
guage and traditions.
8 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
ln many parts of rural Kentucky are to be found pure Anglo- Y
Saxon folk, living under conditions similar to their kins people in ‘
the British Isles, but entirely lacking the trained service described
above." (Introduction first QB June 1925). il
To meet this need the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Ba-
bies met at the call of Mrs. Mary Breckinridge, on May 28, 1925,
at the Capitol Hotel, Frankfort, Kentucky, to form an organization
and elect its executive officers. Mrs. Breckinridge, the first speaker, ;
outlined briefly the character of the work to be undertaken, and
said that it would be carried forward from special nursing centers
where each nurse-midwife would give midwifery, nursing and public {
health care to an area no larger than she could handle well on i
horseback with not more than fifteen hundred people. Stress would
be laid on the prenatal period, the care in childbirth and after care
of mother and baby, and the further needs of the young child - I
treating the other phases of public health nursing as valuable but I
secondary aspects of the work. She said that the nurses chosen l
would need to have, in addition to their general hospital and public l
health training, a few months special preparation as midwives simi- l
lar to that which she had obtained in England. ’
Mrs. Breckinridge said further that a mountain county had been
selected for this initial demonstration, not because the problem
was peculiar to the mountains, but for the following reasons: 1)
the mountains presented an intensification of the problem and it
was more sporting to begin there; 2) the native population in the
mountains had a very high average of ability and was ofthe great-
est possible value to the nation; and 3) the picturesque appeal of
the mountains would draw a more ready response in getting the
work under way.
Resolutions: 1) that the name of this association shall be the Ken-
tucky Committee for Mothers and Babies; 2) that its purpose is to
safeguard lives and health of mothers and young children by pro- [
viding trained nurse midwives for rural areas where there are no `
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 9
resident physicians; 3) that the value of this service shall be dem-
Y onstrated first in a given county, (Leslie having been selected by
permission ofthe State Board of Health); 4) that accurate records
i shall be kept, and the work begun with a survey in cooperation
l with the State Board of Health, to obtain one hundred percent
l registration of births and deaths in a given county, in order that the
A value of the service in terms of human life may be established.
i Its motto became ‘He shall gather the lambs with his arm and
1 carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with
young’.”
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l So, a survey was conducted in Leslie County, which measured
about 376 square miles approximately 10,000 inhabitants.The work
li began with the main focus not only on the care of mothers and
I babies and lowering the mortality rates of both, but also on con-
{ ditions such as diptheria, typhoid, anemia, malnutrition,
l parasites,TB, gunshot wounds. Another serious problem was bums,
* which little girls in their dresses suffered when they stood too
l close in front of fires to keep warm. Mary Breckinridge’s dream
l was that her vision would spread roots "like the Banyan tree of
the forest, yielding shade and fruit to the wide neighborhoods of
men."
Mary Breckinridge immediately began seeking donors to her work
and the list of those who responded reads like a who’s who in
America. Her wealthy friends in the east and midwest saw a
movement in healthcare delivery that could spread throughout the
country and the world. This was shared by doctors and nurses
and letters of inquiry came from all over the world. One in par-
ticular, delivered by mule back mail, was addressed "Pioneer Mid-
, wives Association, Kentucky" from South Africa. Another ad-
dressed FNS, Kenya, Africa, had written across the envelope,
"try Kentucky, USA."
10 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
The area grew, the patients increased, six out-post centers were I
built and Hyden Hospital opened its doors in the summer of 1928.
Also, the same year, the name ofthe organization was changed to i`
the Frontier Nursing Service. The reason for the change lies in ir
the fact that our work is not local in its application. The conditions i
we are endeavoring to meet in Eastem Kentucky exists among
millions of Americans in isolated areas in a number of other states y
where the difficulties of a frontier existence still prevails (QB *
February 1928).
Most, if not all, of the nurses were midwives having trained in l
England. Some of the American nurses were given scholarships
to train in England and retum to the mountains. In the fifth year of r
operation, there were 31 nurses on the staff, an amazing number
when you realize that the salary was only $150 per month. In
addition, the nurses at the out-post centers were given $50.00 per 4
month for expenses, not only for themselves but also for the cost
of their horses and cows.
r
The year 1928 also saw the beginning of the Courier Service,
fashioned after the volunteers who drove all forms of transport in
France for the American Committee for Devastated France after 1
World War 1. During her years in France, Mrs. Breckinridge real-
ized the value of these young volunteers and years later, offered
summer jobs to young women (and men). They were responsible f
for the care of all the horses which were the only transportation
for the nurses and guests arriving or departing at the railroad sta-
tion in Hazard, a seven hour ride. -
Years later in the 1960’s, when coal trucks drove too fast and too
over-loaded on the roads, horseback riding became too dangerous
and so jeeps replaced the horses. The first jeeps were second r
hand Army vehicles bought from the US Army. Horses were kept
for recreation for the off duty nurses and there is no more beauti- ‘
ful trail riding than the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 1 1
I In 1929, The Kentucky Association of Nurse Midwives was in-
corporated and its logo was a Kentucky Cardinal surrounded by
l the words “Life is the gift of God." It had 16 chartered members
- all FNS staff, as they were the only nurse-midwives in the U.S.
li In 1941, it became the American Association of Nurse Midwives
l (AANM), and in 1955 the AANM became a member of the In-
temational Confederation of Midwives. The AANM met annually
at Wendover with some prominent leader in the field of obstetrics
or gynecology as the guest speaker.
4 In 1955, the American College of Nurse Midwifery (ACNM) was
E incorporated and so it seemed only natural that the AANM and
l the ACNM should get together, which they did in 1969 with the
merger being called the American College of Nurse Midwives.
l The corporate seal of the College was redesigned and shows the
ll date 1929, when the professional organization for nurse-midwives
l was formed. Helen Browne, Mrs. Breckinridge’s successor, and
i who Mrs. Breckinridge said was "the most brilliant teacher we
ll ever had, the most lucid in importing knowledge," wrote after the
merger, "It is with some degree of sadness that we say farewell
to the Kentucky Cardinal on the seal ofthe AANM. This little bird
1 reminded us throughout the 41 years that "Life is the gift of God."
l In 1932, when the national maternal death rate was still deplor-
p ably high, Dr. Louis Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance
I Company, who tabulated the first 1,000 maternity cases of the
FNS wrote: "The study shows conclusively what has in fact been
demonstrated before, that the type of service rendered by the
l Frontier Nurses safeguards the life of mother and babe. If such
service were available to the women of the country generally,
there would be a saving of 10,000 mothers’ lives a year in the
United States, there would be 30,000 less stillbirths and 30,000
l more children alive at the end of the first month of 1ife." (QB
l Summer 1932). Years later when the first 10,000 matemity cases
I were tabulated by Metropolitan Life, the results showed a mater-
nity mortality rate of9. 1/10,000 when the U.S. rate was 34/10,000
V and the neonatal mortality was 17.3/1,000 compared to 20.5/ 1 ,000
in the U.S.
12 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
In 1939, when World War II started and eleven English nurse- 1
midwives retumed to Britain, Mrs. Breckinridge’s dream of start- *
ing her own school to train nurse-midwives became a reality. The
Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery took shape quickly, caused l
by the necessity of training her own, due to the loss of the won- l
derful nurse-midwives who began the service with her. Again her
thoughts: "my liking to begin small, take root, and only then start to I
grow." It opened in November 1939 with two students, who were
already working in Hyden Hospital. 1
The Health Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Kentucky
had authorized the creation ofthe Frontier Graduate School of
Midwifery and told Mrs. Breckinridge to run it like those in Great i
Britain and said he would arrange for impartial examinations simi- H
lar to those conducted by the Central Midwives Board in England
and Scotland. The Division of Matemal and Child Welfare took
responsibility for the exams, oral, written and practical while State
Board of Health gave a certificate licensing the graduates to prac-
tice Midwifery in Kentucky, with the title of Certified Midwife. `l
After successfully passing these examinations, the students re-
ceived a diploma ofthe school. It would be years before students
sat for the ACNM exam which was required for licensure. p
So, where are we today'? In 1925, Mrs. Breckinridge hoped for an
endowment of $500,000. As of April this year, the endowment I
was $21,500,000. _
The first year’s revenues were $11,370, expenses were $10,520.
Today, the annual budget reflects revenues of $18,968,000 and
expenses of$19,228,000 - a shortfall of$260,000.
Hyden Hospital, built in 1928, had 16 beds. Mary Breckinridge I
Hospital, built in 1975 and now a critical access hospital, has 25 l
beds. I
ln the early years we sometimes had one MD. Now we have four
full-time physicians.
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 13
Six out-post centers or clinics - two left and one new one added.
· Centers were consolidated when horses and mules became obso-
lete and roads increased in the mountains with more cars and
li trucks.
I
The Courier Program still exists with the focus changing from
T taking care of horses and driving guests to leaming about medical
l and nursing care in rural areas. The rugged, rural, remote, roadless
areas are a thing of the past.
There are 269 employees which include 49 nurses.
l Along with caring for our patients, the Frontier Graduate School
of Midwifery, now called the Frontier School of Midwifery and
Family Nursing grows with each year and is now the largest school
in the country with over 2,100 alumni.
l
In December 2004, the Southern Association of Colleges notified
°l FSMFN that it is now accredited to offer a Master of Science in
Nursing degree. This means our students no longer have to attend
another university for their Masters and it also means that prior
ii students, who didn’t complete their Masters, can return to our
i school to complete that degree. The School has progressed from
giving a diploma after a six month’s course to granting an MSN.
U Congratulations to Dr. Susan Stone, President and Dean of the
School, Dr. Julie Marfell, Chair of Family Nursing and all their
I staff for achieving this outstanding accomplishment, of which Mrs.
Breckinridge would be so proud.
The motto has stayed the same through all these years and its
, purpose was amended in 1931 and again in 1999 as it appears
{ today on the back of the Quarterly Bulletin.
1 Of course, the service could never have survived and grown if it
hadn’t been for our loyal donors. Even during the Depression and
stock market crash, Mrs. Breckinridge’s friends continued to send
money and there were times when there wasn’t enough money in
14 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
the bank to pay the nurses’ salaries. While her staff worried about I
the lack of funds, she had faith that money would be forthcoming
and it usually did arrive. During World War II when horseshoes
and diapers were so scarce, she went to Congress and said she I
absolutely had to have items like these to continue her work and
she was successful. She had a hard time convincing officials that I
horseshoes were essential to childbirth.
Our donors today come from all over the world and some $5.00 I
and $10.00 donors remember FNS in their wills. We have re-
ceived legacies from people we don’t even know and some are I
anonymous. l
If there were more time I could spend all evening talking about
the FNS — from its humble beginnings to what it is today. Person-
ally, I’ve been associated with the FNS for over 50 years, first as
a Courier and now in my present position. I’ve been a Board
member for 36 years and I am joined with a Board and a CEO
that are as dedicated to the FNS as I imagine Mrs. Breckinridge’s
original Board of l2 were in 1925. They set a very high standard
for us to follow and maintain and Boards, over the years, have
continued to follow the foot prints laid down for us. The present I
five women and five men on the Board focus, primarily, on the
care of mothers and children and the promotion and growth ofthe
FSMFN.
Wendover, which was the only thing Mrs. Breckinridge spent her
own personal money on, remains as beautiful as ever. It is not
only home to the Couriers but also a Bed and Breakfast Inn. Many
local groups hold meetings at Wendover and the Board of Gover-
nors have their Fall and Spring meetings in The Big House living
room, with Mrs. Breckinridge looking down on them from her .
portrait over the fireplace. Her presence is felt and it is as if she is
saying "I’m trusting you with my demonstration so you’d better
continue to do it right." One can still hear her saying, when she
talked about the FNS, "the glorious thing is, it has worked." We’re
an organization where the frontier never closes and, as one of
Board members said, "Our frontier will never close until all moth-
ers and babies are healthy and safe."
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 15
FNS 80th Year Celebration Update - Cont’d
Mary Breckinridge Awarded the 10,000th Certificate
by the ACNM Certification Council (ACC)
On June 13, 2005, at the Frontier Nursing Service celebration of
. 80 years of service, the ACC awarded Mrs. Breckinridge the
Q 10,000 certificate awarded in nurse-midwifery. This was a great
i honor that was well deserved. Dr. Nancy Lowe, an alumnna of
the FSMFN and currently the President of ACC made the pre-
sentation. Accepting the award were Dr. Susan Stone, President
i . . .
l of the FSMFN, Miss Jane Leigh Powell, Charrman of the FNS
Board of Govemors, and Mr. W.W. Hall, Jr., President and CEO
of FNS. Below are Nancy’s words as she made the presentation.
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Dr. Nancy Lowe, Dr. Susan Stone, Miss Jane Leigh Powell,
W W Hall, Jr.
I6 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
Staff and alumni, and distinguished guests, I am privileged to serye
as the current President ofthe ACNM Certification Council, ACC, it
soon to become the American Midwifery Certification Board. In
2002, ACC awarded the 10,001* nurse-midwifery/midwifery cer-
tification. At that time, the ACC Board of Directors decided to ,
hold out certificate number 10,000 to award ceremoniously at the l
time of the 50‘*‘ Anniversary of the American College of Nurse- I
Midwives.
The decision ofwho should receive the 10,000*** certificate num-
ber was an easy one for the ACC Board to make. I distinctly .
remember that board meeting when the decision was made. As
the Board President, I asked the question "Who should receive
the 10,000*** certificate or how should we go about choosing the
individual?" There was a momentary pause and then, almost si- ‘
multaneously several of the CNM members of the Board said I
"Mary Breckinridge" with immediate enthusiastic affirmation by ‘
the other members of the Board. Our decision was made in a
matter of minutes.
My own story illustrates the ongoing effect that Mary Breckinridge _
has on both the care of underserved women and their families and I
the profession of midwifery. I read "Wide Neighborhoods" in 1975
as a graduate student in a maternal-child health nursing master’s I
program that had a major emphasis on community-based care
and outreach. I was deeply affected by the account of Mrs.
Breckinridge’s work to improve the health and well being of
underserved women and their families through community-based
midwifery care, by her personal story of loss, and by her resolu-
tion to serve. I was a young mother myself at the time and re-
member distinctly saying in jest, but at the same time with a deep- A
seated longing, to my dear husband that he could have the three
kids, the dog and the house, I was going to KY to become a nurse-
midwife. Thankfully, a number of years later after I eamed my
doctoral degree, I was finally able to fulfill that dream (without
abandoning my own children and husband) by becoming a nurse-
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 17
midwife and FNS alumna through the CNEP Program, Class 4.
‘ r My story is a minor illustration ofthe multitude of nurse-midwives
I and midwives whose personal joumeys in midwifery have been
J directly influenced by the legacy of Mary Breckinridge.
J Miss Powell, Mr. Hall and Dr. Stone, on behalf of the ACNM
Certification Council it is my humble honor to present to you this
certificate that reads:
In honor and recognition of her leadership in the development of
American nurse-midwifery through the healthcare services
And educational programs of
The Frontier Nursing Service and
The Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing,
l The ACNM Certification Council, Inc. posthumously awards
Mary Breckinridge
l Certificate number 10,000
~ Therefore acknowledging her as a Certified Nurse—Midwife
V June _l3,2005
Nancy K. Lowe, CNM PhD, FACNM FAAN
President, ACNM Certyication Council, Inc.
i
18 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
FNS 80th Year Celebration Update - Cont’d _
Kitty Ernst is Awarded Outstanding Alumnus at
FNS 80th Celebration in Washington, D.C. l
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Kitty Ernst
This year, the FNS Foundation provided an award for outstanding
accomplishments by a F SMFN Alumnus. A committee of three A
alumni was formed to review the nominations. They chose Kitty r
Ernst. The award was given at the 80*** celebration reception in
Washington, D.C. on June l3, 2005. Kitty was really surprised.
There is no person who deserves this award more.
The following is the nomination letter submitted by Kathryn Osbome,
Frontier School ofMidwifery & Family Nursing Alumni, Class 3
(see next page).
QUARTERLY BULLETIN 19
A Nomination for Kitty Ernst
[ FNS Outstanding Alumni Award 2005
I’m not exactly certain of the year Mrs. Emst graduated from
ii FNS (Editor: October 1951). I’ve known Kitty for almost 15 years,
I and have had the privilege of hearing many stories about her work
i with FNS, including the time she spent as a student under the
{ tutelage of Mary Breckinridge. I can say, with utmost certainty,
t that Kitty has committed her life to the mission of FNS. Kitty
! came to FNS as a young nurse — looking for a way to combine her
I love of horses with her work as a nurse. She had worked previ-
i ously as an obstetrical nurse, and was fairly certain that she was
i not interested in working with women in labor and birth. She had
seen only the medical management of obstetric care, and knew
that she wanted no part of that. So when she leamed that she
needed to be a midwife with a nursing district in order to get a
horse, she was ready to leave FNS and retum to her work in the
city. Fortunately, Mrs. Breckinridge saw the budding nurse-mid-
wife in Kitty, and suggested that she attend a home birth with one
ofthe midwives before making the decision to return home.
Over the years, hundreds of Kitty’s students have heard the rest
of that story, which she tells with absolute eloquence. We all know
I that the young Kitty Ernst witnessed, in