Interview with Gertrude Isaacs, November 15, 1978

Project: Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project

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Interview Summary

Gertrude Isaacs, who has her doctorate in nursing, was co-director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program with Dr. W. B. Rogers Beasley in 1971, and then was named Education Director of the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing. In 1977, she became a consultant to the school. She speaks of her acquaintance with Mary Breckinridge, and of what the FNS meant to the local people. Isaacs discusses Breckinridge's philosophy of preventive care and teaching the people to care for themselves. She comments upon the change in atmosphere in FNS relations with local residents when the nurses stopped visiting in the homes. Isaacs believes that part of what Breckinridge created has been lost through over-regulation by federal and state governments and by Medicare and Medicaid. Also discussed is the controversy over physician support of nurse-midwives and the increasing demand for home deliveries. Besides giving statistics, Isaacs clarifies a number of terms, differentiating between primary medical care and primary health care. She also discusses social relations within the mountain family and the position of children.

Interview Accession

1979oh079_fns035

Interviewee Name

Gertrude Isaacs

Interviewer Name

Dale Deaton

Interview Date

1978-11-15

Interview Partial Date

March 31, 1980

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Isaacs, Gertrude Interview by Dale Deaton. 15 Nov. 1978. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Isaacs, G. (1978, November 15). Interview by D. Deaton. Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

Isaacs, Gertrude, interview by Dale Deaton. November 15, 1978, Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7w3r0pvr5c