ABSTRACT
Nursing and medicine are inexorably intertwined, through a shared interest in patient welfare. This professional proximity has encouraged members of both groups to observe and respond to the activities of the other. Following the introduction of formal nurse preparation in the US during the 1870s, there is evidence that physicians welcomed the presence of educated nurses at their side. The early records of the Illinois Training School for Nurses cite several instances of physician approbation of trained nursing care. For example, in 1882 a Cook County surgeon wrote:
A week ago, standing by the bedside of a little boy, a victim of that dread disease hydrophobia, I could not help admiring the tender care which rendered his last hours more bearable. No mother could have done half so much for her own child as this nurse did for her charge, and in the face of risking her own life by so doing.1
