The Sister Kenny Network

History and Philosophy of Public Health Essay, 1995

This essay was written in 1995 as the assessment exercise for the History and Philosophy of Public Health module in the Master of Public Health programme at the University of Sydney. The essay received encouraging comments from my tutor, Dr Milton Lewis. A revision was submitted in the same year to an Australian nursing journal, and was rejected for publication after an anonymous reviewer stated the discussion was of little relevance to contemporary nursing.

I have chosen this essay as my first contribution to the website in order to establish a base line which will allow the evolution of my thoughts on the life and work of Elizabeth Kenny to be assessed. Reading the complete essay for the first time in nearly a decade has been a revealing exercise. I am struck by the naivety of my acceptance of the facts as presented by Victor Cohn, but equally astonished that the seeds of discontent are visible in this first stab at making sense of the conundrum of Elizabeth Kenny.

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