Nursing, Policy and Politics in Twentieth-century Chile: Reforming Health, 1920s-1990s

by Markus Thulin, Ricardo A. Ayala

Overview

This book offers the first in-depth account of healthcare policy in Chile across the twentieth century. It charts how nursing and nurses intersected with the political context of healthcare, with a focus on the country’s transition across welfare systems. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with nurses and governmental representatives, this book explores how the nursing profession implemented and challenged reform, while policies had an impact on nurses. It analyses nurses’ employment and mobility, and their lobbying through the press and through unions. The authors demonstrate that while Chilean health policy was influenced by US cultural politics, reform depended on the flexibility and willingness of nurses to carry through reforms. By examining the participation of the largest female professional group, the book offers new insights into the privatization of society on the pinnacle of industrial development and seeks to contribute to contemporary debates onChile’s welfare system. It is a vital read for scholars researching the history of public health.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030908348
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	03/16/2023
Edition description:	2023
Pages:	283
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Markus Thulin is based at the Brauweiler Memorial Site of the Rhineland Regional Council, Germany. He has been both a researcher of Latin American history at the University of Cologne and a history lecturer, with his interests revolving around women’s history, history of healthcare and history teaching.

Ricardo A. Ayala is a sociologist with a background in history, healthcare and political science. He is a professor of ethics at Universidad de las Américas, Chile, and a research affiliate at Ghent University, Belgium.

Table of Contents

1. Background: The Struggle for Public Health and Equality.- 2. Nursing in Times of Socialism (1970–1973).- 3. Nursing Under the Civilian-Military Cooperation (1973–1979).- 4. Nursing in Times of State Reforms (1980–1982).- 5. Nursing in Times of Transition and Distinction (1982–1990).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A much-needed study that reveals the fundamental significance of the nursing profession in the history of public health and that traces the important contributions nurses made to the creation of a functioning healthcare system. It explores vital questions of gender, medical practice, and power – all placed in the context of the dramatic political transitions of twentieth-century Chilean history.Jadwiga (E. Pieper Mooney. Executive Council of Latin American Studies, University of Arizona)

Among other things, a piece of research that has tackled in great detail the influence of the US on nursing systems in Latin America. (SusaneKreutzer, Münster University of Applied Sciences).

The authors convincingly demonstrate the links between nurses, past and present. This is an essential read for both studying processes of yesteryear and reviewing health policy of today. (Karina Ramacciotti, National University of Quilmes)

It was about time that nurses in Latin America had their proper share in historiography. This book sits at the intersection of social history, history of welfare and women's history. Thulin and Ayala have produced fineresearch which sheds a different light on the development of professional women in the health sector. (Barbara Potthast, University of Cologne).

The book offers an extraordinarily well documented narrative on Chilean nursing. The political economic and historical analysis allows to profile the social history of Chilean nursing policymaking within the political process. A book that will be a reference book in its genre. (Jaime Llambias-Wolff. York University, Canada).

A thoroughly researched and engaging social history of healthcare policy in Chile in the twentieth century. Thulin and Ayala have contributed an important work of critical scholarship on nursing agency in both shaping and mobilizing healthpolicy to the benefit of society and the profession itself. This book is an essential read for students and teachers of social and healthcare policy, labour history, nursing history and women’s history. It addresses the ways that women navigated power, patriarchy, and class structures. (Gerard Fealy, University College Dublin).

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Alain Touwaide, PhD (Ronin Institute)
Description: This book covers the formation and transformations of nursing in 20th century Chile. More concretely, this topic can be summarized by four questions posed in the introduction: "How have nurses as women reacted to dissatisfaction and concern with nursing policy and the different policy shifts? How was the monopoly of physicians challenged while shaping health policy? How were the relations between nurses and the state shaped and reshaped across political leanings? How did nurses exert agency in the politics that concerned their own profession?" This book attempts to answer these questions by examining how nurses were involved in social policy. It explores the history of nursing from the viewpoint of nurses at the time.
Purpose: During the 20th century, Chile shifted from a traditional country to a modern one, with the creation of a medical system, while simultaneously transferring through different political regimes. The purpose of this book is to understand both the making of the nursing profession and the repeated adaptation of this profession to the changes of regime, particularly the involvement of nursing in these successive transformations.
Audience: Many audiences will benefit from this book, not just nurses. The book analyzes political history, policymaking, professional development in the medical field, and interactions between interested groups. It also covers sociology, political and economic history, cultural changes, and the making of society. Thus, the book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in these fields, as it is a masterful analysis of a broad range of original material to build a compelling case.
Features: The book is divided into five parts, corresponding to the phases of Chilean history from the first to the last years of the 20th century. The opening chapter covers the transformation of Chilean society and medicine, with the difficult creation of a public health system including nursing, the fight for women's rights, and the shift of society from a traditional world to the 20th century. Each of the four chapters that follow correspond to a political phase of Chilean history, including socialism (1970-73), the military regime (1973-79), a time of reforms (1980-82), and the last decade of the 20th century. Each period is characterized by a specific approach, which is carefully scrutinized and reconstructed based on a great wealth of documentation from legal texts to press articles to adhere as closely as possible to the facts. The narrative is clearly articulated in sub-sections marked by distinctive titles and supported by an abundant collection of notes (unfortunately endnotes, not footnotes) referring to sources, including some critical annotations.
Assessment: This niche medical history may go unnoticed, but the book deserves to be part of any library aiming to provide as broad and inclusive a coverage of present-day medico-historical panorama as possible. The intense political history of South America in the 20th century is well known, contrary to the medical history, however characteristic it may be. This book deserves to be studied to discover the depth of the movements that helped forge a modern nation and its medical system.

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