The Principal Investigator is requesting grant support to write a book that examines the history of home care from 1880-1930. In this book the author will analyze this issue in a broad and comprehensive manner. Focusing on sickrooms of the rich, middle class and poor, she will examine if and how race, ethnicity, income, type of illness, and local conditions and patterns of practice determine access to care and nature of the care provided. She will give special attention to the care of the """"""""dangerous"""""""" sick (e.g., those with infectious diseases) and will explore boundaries between philanthropic, as contrasted to entrepreneurial, home care. The Investigator will analyze factors both internal and external to the sickroom in her history of home care. She will study the perspectives of nurses, physicians, patients, and family caregivers and the tensions that at times developed between each of the groups. In addition, she will examine the impact of social attitudes, medical advances, demographic change, and economic factors in the evolution of home care. The Investigator will use a wide range of sources, both published and unpublished, to show the transition of health care from the home to the hospital and, most recently, back to the home.
