Course Unit | Session 3: The need for and role of black hospitals and black professional schools for the growth and development of the black nurse, doctor, and dentist

Session 3: The need for and role of black hospitals and black professional schools for the growth and development of the black nurse, doctor, and dentist

Description

Publication of the Flexner Report in 1910 contributed to the closing of 9 Black medical schools, leaving only Howard University medical school and Meharry Medical College to train the majority of Black physicians, dentists and pharmacists until the late 20th century. While hospital expansion continued throughout the country, most hospitals with schools of nursing denied admission to Black applicants, and white hospitals refused to allow Black medical school graduates access to post-graduate training opportunities. White and Black leaders, some philanthropists, some health professionals, worked to overcome these barriers by opening up more Black hospitals and establishing training programs in Black hospitals for Black nursing students. At the same time, white and Black leaders recognized the need to upgrade the quality of medical and surgical care provided to patients in Black hospitals and set out to raise funds and create programs to achieve these goals. These efforts often brought together like-minded individuals in the community and helped to create a culture inside Black hospitals as places where inter-racial cooperation could occur. Dentistry did not require for licensure additional clinical training after graduation from dental school; however, some early Black dentists were trained as physicians and some Black physicians went on to receive training as dentists.  Additionally, those dentists with advanced skills needed access to hospital operating rooms to perform dental surgery and thus, the establishment of Black hospitals helped advance the professional accomplishments of Black physicians, dentists, nurses and pharmacists, and provide access to medical and dental care to persons of color.

Objectives

  1. Discuss the impact of the Flexner Report on black medical schools
  2. Discuss the Gies Report on dental schools
  3. Describe the establishment of black dental schools and nurses training programs as a component of college and university education
  4. Describe the development of black hospitals and their role in providing a training environment and training programs for black nurses, doctors and dentists
  5. Describe the impact of hospital accreditation, the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the “black hospital movement, and the migration of large populations of blacks to northern cities on improving standards of black hospitals and public health programs.

Connections

Readings

Dentistry

General

Medicine

Nursing