Article
Health Education Leaves the Hills: Frontier Nursing University’s Move from Appalachia
124 West Virginia Law Review 687
(2022)
Abstract
Rural communities lack maternity and childbirth services, and access is getting worse. Despite the serious need for more rural-focused childbirth services, Frontier Nursing—the most famous rural-focused childbirth healthcare provider and educator—recently left the historic rural location it had called home since its inception nearly a century ago. Frontier Nursing, established in the Appalachian Mountains in 1925, initially provided nursing and midwifery care focused on the residents of Leslie County, Kentucky, and in 1939 established a school in Leslie County to train future rural nurse-midwives. Despite success over nearly 100 years deep in the remote and rural Appalachian foothills, Frontier Nursing recently left its mountain home in Leslie County, choosing to relocate to the suburban community of Versailles, Kentucky. This essay uses a ruralist lens to contemplates this move in light of the serious need for childbirth services in rural areas. As part of West Virginia Law Review’s “Health in the Hills” symposium, this essay is both a celebration of Frontier Nursing and a critique of its recent move from Appalachia.
Keywords
- midwifery,
- appalachian,
- appalachia,
- kentucky,
- frontier nursing service,
- frontier nursing university,
- Mary Breckinridge,
- Leslie County,
- rural,
- urban,
- health care,
- education,
- nursing
Disciplines
Publication Date
2022
Citation Information
Hannah Haksgaard. "Health Education Leaves the Hills: Frontier Nursing University’s Move from Appalachia" 124 West Virginia Law Review 687 (2022) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hannah_haksgaard/15/