Local nurses played role in improving standards

Nursing was once considered an unseemly career for a woman in 19th-century Texas. Back then, nursing duties were frequently performed by untrained male attendants.

When the Texas Medical Association convened in Waco in 1878, the physicians quickly dismissed the proposal for a professional nursing school for men.

The TMA president remarked that “male nurses were a nuisance” and that “they drink all the whiskey intended for the patient.”