ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on nursing in the United States (US) within the global context and through the lenses of nursing’s historical, social, and political economic dimensions. It explores the evolution of modern nursing within the context of the US political economy. Although some population groups in the US are covered by government-sponsored health insurance plans, millions of people in the US have no health insurance at all. The evolution of health care financing in the US has a particularly unique trajectory shaped by its culture and political economy. In lieu of compulsory national health insurance plans, the US developed private employer-sponsored health care insurance plans that were offered as a benefit of employment. Nineteenth century industrialization in Europe and the US required an “organized corps of nurses” to staff the new health care facilities. Nursing in the US followed the development of capitalism from its competitive beginnings into its monopolistic stages and finally into its current global phase.
